Study: Over a quarter of millennials prefer bitcoin over stocks and bonds

SAN FRANCISCO — For all of bitcoin’s complexity and intricacies, over a quarter of millennials would rather invest in the currency than certain traditional assets, such as stocks and bonds, a new survey finds.

Blockchain Capital, a cryptocurrency-focused venture capital firm, funded a of survey more than 2,000 Americans last October, finding that 30 percent of Americans were at least somewhat familiar with bitcoin.

Familiarity was largely dependent on one’s age — 42 percent of millennial respondents knew what bitcoin was versus only 15 percent of those 65-plus — which also translated into millennials being more likely to invest in the currency.

Namely, 30 percent of millennials indicated a preference for bitcoin over an equivalent amount in government bonds; 27 percent for bitcoin over stocks; 22 percent for bitcoin over real estate; and 19 percent for bitcoin over gold.

Among the survey’s millennial cohort, males were much more likely than females to express interest in investing in the volatile currency.

Still, only four percent of millennials — and two percent of Americans as a whole — had actually put their money where their mouth was by purchasing or using bitcoin, suggesting that the currency’s best days may lie ahead.

Other poll results seemed to confirm such a notion; nearly a fifth of respondents — and a third of all millennials — said that they intended to buy some bitcoin within the next five years.

Overall, millennial attitudes toward bitcoin were unequivocally the most enthusiastic, with 52 percent believing that the platform was a “positive innovation in financial technology,” and 27 percent trusting bitcoin more than big banks.

“The results of the survey reinforce our conviction in the massive opportunity that lies ahead for Bitcoin,” says Spencer Bogart, a managing director at Blockchain Capital, in a press release.

Blockchain Capital’s survey was conducted online by Harris Poll with American adults aged 18 or older, about a fifth of whom could be considered millennials.