Blockchain Capital, a cryptocurrency-focused hedge fund and venture capital firm, has revealed in survey that 30 percent of millennials would rather invest in bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market than government bonds or stocks.
Millennials Prefer Bitcoin Over Stocks
In an interview with Forbes, Timothy Tam, the founder of CoinFi and former hedge fund trader, emphasized that millennials and investors from the traditional finance industry have become more intrigued by bitcoin due to its fixed supply and its exponential growth rate.
“There’s limited supply because, aside the fact that there will only ever be 21 million Bitcoins in circulation, most of the holders of Bitcoin are long terms holders. The demand on the other hand keeps soaring,” said Tam.
In December 2017, billionaire investor Mike Novogratz described bitcoin as a speculator’s dream, because of its fixed supply and rising demand for the asset class.
But, for millennials and the vast majority of investors, bitcoin’s presence is more significant than a speculator’s asset. It is a robust store of value and a decentralized currency, which is unalterable and consequently, resistant to censorship. It serves the $40 trillion offshore banking industry better than the banks that dominate the space, as BlockTower’s Ari Paul previously noted.
Hence, given that bitcoin is still in its early stage in development and adoption, the fact that the relatively large portion of millennials are willing to and prefer to invest in the cryptocurrency market instead of the traditional finance sector is noteworthy. Bitcoin has already begun to evolve into a major asset class, as JPMorgan global markets strategist Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou said:
“In all, the prospective introduction of bitcoin futures has the potential to elevate cryptocurrencies to an emerging asset class. The value of this new asset class is a function of the breadth of its acceptance as a store of wealth and as a means of payment and simply judging by other stores of wealth such as gold, cryptocurrencies have the potential to grow further from here.”
Where Does Bitcoin Go in 2018?
Panigirtzoglou explained that bitcoin has started to evolve into a major asset class with the listing of bitcoin futures by leading markets like the Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) and CME Group.
But, the truth is, the global cryptocurrency market and exchanges within it have become multi-billion dollar companies of their own, and have started to process more volumes that stock markets. Bithumb for instance, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency exchange based in South Korea, has started to process more volumes on a daily basis than the KOSDAQ, the country’s main stock market.
In 2018, with the entrance of millennials and young investors, analysts expect the price of bitcoin to reach the $50,000 mark, and become the first cryptocurrency to reach a $1 trillion market cap. The introduction of bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Cboe could bring the price of bitcoin to $50,000 much quicker than the expectations of investors.