According to a Morgan Stanley executive, the young and adventurous usually go for crypto, while older investors stick to more traditional assets.
In a Sept. 8 interview with CNN anchor Julia Chatterley, Morgan Stanley’s head of emerging markets and chief global strategist Ruchir Sharma stated that the generational divide when it comes to investments has many millennials choosing Bitcoin (BTC) over gold.
“I think some of the older [investors] are still buying gold, and millennials are buying more of the Bitcoins and the cryptocurrencies,” said Sharma.
Part of the younger generation’s drive to look towards crypto may be related to Sharma’s prediction that inflation could come as early as 2021 in the United States. He cited a number of monetary and fiscal measures officials have taken to deal with the economic fallout of the pandemic.
“There is this lingering feeling out there that given what central banks are doing in terms of printing so much money, there is a search for alternative assets.”
“To have about 5% or so of your portfolio in gold is not a bad idea,” said the Morgan Stanley exec. “If you're a bit more adventurous — and I guess it’s more to do with demographics — then obviously search for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies."
Crypto Twitter saw this example played out in real time yesterday as famous gold bug Peter Schiff put it to the internet to decide who was more trustworthy when it came to financial advice: a 57-year-old goldbug with 30 years’ experience as an investment professional or an 18-year-old unemployed college freshman who favored Bitcoin. Of the 82,906 people surveyed, 81.3% chose “the kid.”