Even with the talk being that Millennials are driving the Bitcoin boom and it is the prefered investment opportunity for the young adults, co-founder of popular stock trading app Robinhood expects equities and stocks to stay in favor.
Stocks are indeed at a record high, but they pale in comparison with the growth of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Additionally, the new technology that is cryptocurrency seems to be geared towards the generation that is at the cutting edge of investment.
No massive shift
However, for Robinhood co-founder Vlad Tenev conventional investments and technologies are winning in the near term. He said:
"I wouldn't say that we're anticipating a massive shift from stocks to cryptocurrencies. We don't see the equities market going away anytime soon."
The growth may indeed be higher in cryptocurrencies, but something that has dogged Bitcoin and its related coins has been adopted in all senses of the word. As a currency it has struggled to be adopted by retailers, and it seems even as an investment opportunity.
Although talk of investing in digital currencies and the transformative force of Blockchain has grown, many still see more conventional investments and technologies winning short term.
Conventional thinking
Tenev’s view seems to fly in the face of what is expected from the age group of 18-35 and his optimism on stock trading is notable, given that 78 percent of RobinHood's more than 2 mln customers fall into the so-called millennial category.
The distrust of banking, and by extension traditional investment models such as stocks, from Millennials is conventionally thought of as the driving force behind this disruptive technology.
A Bankrate survey in July found that just 13 percent of younger investors like stocks, while real estate and cash were tied first place among millennial investors at 30 percent each. A separate poll conducted in August by LendEDU found that more than a third of U.S. investors aged 18 to 34 said they plan to invest in Bitcoin.
Investment adages
Of course, even for Millennials and the high-risk generation, there are still considerations that need to be made if they are to invest in this new technology, and they should be following a few adages.
"Everyone should have a bit of exposure to digital currencies because [it] looks like [the] future," said Adam White, head of Coinbase's GDAX exchange. But there's "still a very real chance" some of the digital currencies fall "all the way to zero."
White also said digital currency investors should still heed two investment adages:
"Never invest in what you don't understand, and never invest more than you can afford to lose."