The investing universe has labeled millennials many things: lazy, entitled, narcissistic among other unflattering terms. They have also been accused of being highly risk-averse, preferring flashy investments like crypto over slow-n-steady ones like stocks and bonds.
While some of those platitudes are plain wrong (many millennial stock picks have been handily trouncing the markets), others appear spot on.
And now a survey has established that an overwhelming majority of millennial investors actually prefer bitcoin over gold as the superior safe haven.
A recent global survey by deVere, one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory and fintech organisations, has revealed that millennials really do prefer bitcoin to gold as a safe-haven asset.
The revelation comes just a week after the world’s largest cryptocurrency touched an all-time high of $19,864.
Digital gold
In the deVere survey, more than two-thirds (67%) of the 700+ millennial respondents said that they think Bitcoin simply is a better safe haven compared to gold.
According to de Vere: “From Ancient Egypt onwards gold has always had immense value and has long been revered as the ultimate safe-haven. It’s always been a go-to asset in times of political, social and economic uncertainty as it is expected to retain its value or even grow in value when other assets fall, therefore enabling investors to reduce their exposure to losses. But, as this survey reveals, Bitcoin could be dethroned within a generation as millennials and younger investors, who are so-called ‘digital natives’, believe it competes better against gold as a safe-haven asset.”
The analyst has observed that millennials are increasingly becoming an important market partaker in financial markets, with the largest-ever generational transfer of wealth of more than $60 trillion projected to happen from baby boomers to millennials.
Maybe the timing of the survey influenced its outcome having come at a time when irrational exuberance and greed appear to be taking over the financial markets thanks to high hopes for a Covid-19 vaccine and yet another stimulus package.
Yet, bitcoin might not be ready to replace gold and become the new digital gold.
Several years back, the charismatic duo of Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (aka the Winklevoss twins) made a rather outlandish claim that bitcoin was better at being gold than gold itself. Later on, Gemini crypto exchange founders reiterated their bullish stance by making a bold prediction that bitcoin would one day exceed gold’s $7 trillion market cap.
Unfortunately, bitcoin remains too volatile to become a reiabe store of value, a key feature of a financial safe haven. With a downward deviation that can reach 50 percent vs. 8 percent for gold, bitcoin is hardly winning any battles against the yellow metal as a store of value. Gold is a time-tested safe haven that takes a lot to keep out for the count for long.
This year’s epic collapse by bitcoin and the rest of the crypto universe eclipsed the equity markets selloff and seriously undercut crypto’s safe haven credentials. Instead of buying more bitcoin as cities and entire countries went into total lockdown, the coronavirus outbreak just proved how much people value cash--and toilet paper.
Investors rushed to liquidate their financial assets--including cryptocurrencies-- en masse and stockpiled on huge rolls, leading to bitcoin crashing 60% in a matter of weeks and #toiletpapergate and #toiletpapercrisis suddenly trending on social media.
Crypto analyst Scott Melker, aka ‘The Wolf of All Streets’, could not resist taking a jibe at crypto, though he maintains a soft spot for bitcoin:
“...crypto crash exposed the massive dysfunction in what has been proven to be a very immature space. The fallout has not even begun – exchanges and projects will likely start disappearing in the near future. Bitcoin will be fine. Crypto as an industry is somewhat screwed for the foreseeable future in my mind. I’m not talking about the price of coins. People will continue to pump and dump them. Trading is fine. The core premise of crypto is damaged.”
By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com
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