Millennials - The Driving Force of Cryptocurrencies

Having lived through not just one but two “once in a lifetime” recessions, constantly getting dragged for our love of avocados (how’s your cholesterol looking, Henry?) and green spaces, on top of being painted as lazy and entitled — Millennials are fed up. Yet, despite the frequent stumbling blocks we’ve been graciously given, from degrees that go nowhere to crippling debt and an insanely exclusive housing market, millennials keep ticking along. And unlike our compatriots of Gen X, we plan on doing something about it.

We are explicitly setting our sights on traditional finance and all of the disastrous norms that come with it. Millennials, though often referred to as errant children, are mostly well into their 30s. Our generation already has its hands complete precariously balancing jobs with family and education, social justice issues, and political reform. So how exactly do we plan on taking on one of the longest-running, most well-established, and overfunded paradigms that we know? Through digital literacy and numbers, naturally.

Taking a quick peek at Bitpatt or any other outlet dedicated to providing up-to-date and easily digestible information about digital currencies, it’s simple to see what the future of finance could reasonably look like. And what that system could mean for the lives of everyone in the world. Creating a genuinely borderless financial system that doesn’t rely on inflationary practice and lobbying implies that everyone would have better access and a better chance, to live a comfortable life.

Millennials Investment Strategies

Where millennials have an advantage, and possibly the only one, this generation is far more significant than that of even the baby boomers, outnumbering our competition by several million on either side. Boomer's slot in as the second-largest generation around 69 million members, we’ve got them beat by at least 3 million souls. Which when it comes to money, size matters. Our wallets may not be as fast, but they are many, and they are digital, specifically in the US.

Several surveys showed that many millennials were investing whatever portions of their stimulus checks that they could, and not into the DOW (Dow Jones), either. Instead, these savvy entrepreneurs are dumping what little savings they have into the highly dynamic— high risk, high reward— world of crypto. But it’s not just about the money; it’s about what cryptocurrencies themselves represent, with as many as 7% of millennials considering pumping their stimulus into digital currencies, where nearly 10% of Gen Z are considering investing in these novel stocks. This is outside of the 41% who plan to use every single cent of the checks to go towards daily living costs.

This, for many, is a shining example of why the financial system needs to be restructured in the first place.

The Collapse of Traditional Financial System

Earlier last year, millennials represented 40% of the total workforce, and recently, it’s been seen that businesses are struggling to keep their doors open. Not because of the pandemic shutdowns, but because they can’t staff their establishments. Not because we’ve bred a generation of lazy, entitled slackers that would rather ride off unemployment benefits than sweat for a day’s wage — but instead because we have set up a financial ecosystem that is wholly unviable.

US employers are concerned over the extended unemployment benefits that amount to roughly $300 per week to frame it, which works out to a measly $7.50 per hour, before taxes and without benefits. People see accepting these benefits as a better financial position than working signals some grim realities for employers. They’re willing to pay, and what it costs to live in the US just isn’t cutting it. The recession has also allowed younger generations to explore more job options and gave them time to consider the environments they want to work instead of taking a job because they feel like they have to survive.

This could be another reason why cryptocurrencies are such an enticing format to many millennials and Gen Z that are pumping values as retail investors. Cryptocurrencies represent a fully decentralized financial system, where platforms that support DeFi can offer all of the financial tools they are used to without any of the discrimination and manipulation that runs rampant in traditional systems.

New Decentralized Financial Paradigm

In creating and supporting a novel, decentralized financial paradigm, millennials tell the globe that they’re tired of inflationary tactics with no real benefit. Billions of dollars worth of bailouts have been sent to the nation's Fortune 500 and Wall Street, while the citizens themselves suffered. Comparatively to older generations, millennials are saddled with more debt, lower-paying jobs, higher rent, more expensive food, as well as several technological expenses that previous generations never had to contend with — being a millennial is outrageously expensive. With next to no options to accumulate any wealth or financial security.

These hardships, easily paralleled to those experienced in the early years by Traditionalists, have forged millennials into a “waste not, want not” force. Pennies are stretched into Infinitum, and financial savvy is nurtured against the confidence necessary to take risks. This savvy has been amplified by the generation's high level of digital literacy — much to the chagrin of Boomers. Many struggles to wrap their heads around why a digital currency would be helpful in the first place. But millennials see the promise of a genuinely borderless currency that doesn’t dole out excessive and unnecessary fees on intermediaries and superfluous governmental overreach.

This means that the future of currency could rest in the hands of those that require it most, use it most, and understand it best. Thus, creating a more neutral playing field for all citizens of the world and no longer relying on heaps of debt and the accompanying credit scores to measure self-worth. Instead, reframing currency as precisely what it should be, a conduit to a barter system that every person should have unfettered access to.

Barbara de Sousa