A recent survey has found that crypto is growing in popularity amongst young people in the United States. This is in line with the general popularity trends for crypto. Recent surveys and polls have also shown similar findings across respondents. Sentiment towards crypto investing has skewed towards the positive in the past couple of years. Now, a new survey by Junior Achievement USA has revealed that 1 in 4 U.S. teens would invest in crypto over the stock market.
How Teens View Investing
The Junior Achievement USA survey focused more on the perceptions of U.S. teens towards the stock market. Focusing on how the “Gamestop” speculation had affected teens’ perspective, it asked teens if they believed the stock market was a good investment option. About half (51%) of the 1,004 respondents said that they believed the stock market is “a good thing” for ordinary people, leaving the remaining 49% who did not believe it was a good investment option. Pushing them towards crypto as the better option.
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Recall that the GameStop craze and the rise of the ‘meme stocks’ had a lot of impact on the way people viewed investing. The quick rise of the price in a short period of time had some convinced that it was a quick way to make money. On the other hand, people lost so much money when the stock price crashed that it rang warning bells for others to stay away from the market. The latter seems to be true for U.S. teens.
Commenting on the findings, the President and CEO of Junior Achievement USA said, “These results show that the recent ‘meme stock’ phenomenon could be having an adverse impact on teens’ perceptions of what it means to invest in the stock market. Given the fact that the stock market plays a major role in helping countless Americans achieve a secure retirement, it’s important that we help demystify it for the next generation.”
U.S. Teens Want To Invest In Crypto
When asked their preferred investments when given the money to do so, the largest percentage (43%) of teens picked the stock market. Crypto came up as the second most popular preferred investment by teens. With 25% saying that they would invest in crypto. Followed closely by 24% picking real estate as their preferred investment option. Surprisingly, 37% of the total respondents said they would not invest at all.
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The numbers work out to 1 in 4 wanting crypto investments. Lesser than the percentage wanting to invest in the stock market. But given the age of the crypto market relative to the stock market, the numbers are impressive, to say the least. It shows that young people are more inclined to get involved in digital assets.
The data also shows teens were more likely to turn to social media for information on investing. Followed by information from parents, then websites, and last but not least, getting the information from their school.
Crypto total market currently at $2.17 trillion | Source: Crypto Total Market Cap on TradingView.com
Featured image from Financial Times, chart from TradingView.com