Related Articles
Sep 21, 2022
Gen Z often finds themselves in uncharted waters. They have survived a global pandemic, 2 (likely 3) economic recessions, severe climate catastrophes, and find themselves incredibly draft-able while global tensions continue to heat up. Add in high amounts of student loans, ballooning housing and stock prices, there isn’t much room for them in traditional investments or much desire for slow compounding growth.
As a result the Gen Z generation finds new and volatile investments particularly attractive. Crypto and NFTs offer Gen Z the chance to buy at the ground level and to see fast, meaningful returns. Additionally Gen Z is an internet native generation and are incredibly tech savvy. Crypto and NFTs are in their language and are easily held considering their lifestyles.
Gen Z are often renting or living with their parents and are highly mobile. Crypto and NFTs are held in digital wallets and do not need to be physically accounted for offering extreme geographical flexibility. If they are not living with their parents they likely have roommates. So to think they would be hiding their entire net worth in gold in their closet when sharing a home with 3 other people is kind of crazy.
There are non crypto digital assets available to Gen Z like stocks and bonds. Both are an easier investment to keep secure over gold, but Gen Z has seen two recessions, and see inflation quickly spiraling out of control, and know that between PFOF, dark pools, and unregulated market manipulation by large firms they don't stand much of a chance, and can’t risk their money to just make a return that keeps up with inflation. Bonds in today's inflationary environment are quite the joke and the bond market is on the brink of collapse, so there is nothing there for them either.
To revisit the economic conditions Gen Z finds themselves in, high student loans, low likelihood of high quality of life when they’re post 65 (climate change, war, pollution, overpopulation), high inflation, high home prices, they need big returns and they need them now.
This leaves options trading, crypto and NFTs, and while these seem risky, the reality is they don’t have any other options. In crypto and NFTs Gen Z actually has an investment advantage over stocks, bonds, options, and real estate. Institutions often cannot invest in crypto and NFTs, and many boomers simply don’t and won't understand them. Gen Z gets to be the early investors, and aren’t limited by typical investment regulations like having to be an accredited investor to get access to early stage companies.
Additionally Gen Z can play a part on the creator and on the employee side. Major mainstream NFT projects such as: Bored Ape Yacht Club and Crypto Punks were both started by millennials, however we now see more and more projects emerging from the Gen Z population. And even though these projects were started by millennials it was the Gen Z population that skyrocketed their popularity.
Additionally there is a massive ecosystem of jobs, and careers in these new digital realms that Gen Z can quickly become experts in. There is no old guard or time advantage in that the space is so new, Gen Z can be on the same playing ground as millennials and boomers.
With any budding technology there is opportunity and Gen Z has been able to capitalize on crypto which likely will play a strong role in their future.