Have any teenagers? Ask them what they’d like for the holidays. According to a new report, cryptocurrency and digital assets are at the top of the list for the upcoming generation. The Holiday 2018 report released by Piper Jaffray reavels that, for the first time ever, American teens indicated that they preferred cryptocurrency and v-bucks (the digital currency used in the wildly popular Fortnite) to cash, gift cards, and gas money. Teenagers love crypto, and if that interest continues, it has massive implications for the financial world for the future.
The preference of cryptocurrency and V-bucks over fiat and gift cards is quite significant. If you look closely, it also signals an impending generational shift in adoption of digital currencies. While many of our readers hold and trade cryptocurrency, the upcoming generation’s desire to be gifted cryptocurrency alongside V-bucks also shows that they consider cryptocurrency to be a medium of exchange – not just a speculative investment. This mindset is absolutely critical for mass adoption.
If teenagers prefer to use cryptocurrencies and other digital assets in lieu of cash and gift cards, that means that the volume of crypto assets in everday circulation is only set to grow!
Fortnite’s V-bucks payment system also is a key step towards utilizing and normalizing digital assets. The wildly popular video game has grossed more than $300 million on the iOS platform alone since its Apple launch in March. Fortnite is effectively introducing a new generation of users to an ecosystems where they can buy and trade across a vast digital ecosystem using a medium of exchange that is only loosely tied to Fiat.
Right now, the exchange rate between fiat and V-bucks is $9.99 to 1,000 V-bucks. Users can use, trade, buy, and sell using V-bucks, but any refunds are done in V-bucks as well, not fiat. This encourages users to continue using V-bucks for their everyday spending in the ecosystem. According to Piper Jaffray, this is working. It is attracting teenagers and slowly taking marketshare from a domain that used to be dominated by fiat.
American teens may be big fans of crypto. But how about their parents and grandparents? Those born before 1964, “Baby Boomers”, are decidedly not fans of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. In October, an article published by AARP described Bitcoin as “a bunch of computer code that a bunch of criminals, idealists, and speculators agree is worth ‘real’ money.”
The typical Baby Boomer has about $24,000 in savings, about 10 times as much as millennials. Boomers could be a major source of crypto investors, however, according to a recent Circle survey, less than 2.5% of baby boomers are interested in investing in crypto assets.
What do you think? We think this space has miles and miles to go. We’re just getting started! Financial institutions are finally starting to come aboard, and market-based solutions are starting to come to the US. With the next generation helping push adoption, maybe we’ll see massive growth yet again! Let us know what you think on our Facebook page!
