Coinbase: Saying goodbye to buying houses and stock trading, cryptocurrency becomes the main battlefield for young people's wealth

Original Title: State of Crypto Q4 2025: Younger investors are rewriting the investing playbook

Original Source: Coinbase

Original Compilation: Chopper, Foresight News

For decades, the path to wealth accumulation for Americans has remained largely unchanged: find a good job, buy property, invest in stocks, and then wait for time to bring compound returns. However, our latest "Cryptocurrency Industry Report" shows that the younger generation of investors no longer believes in this traditional path and is adjusting their investment behavior.

To understand the market response strategies of different generational groups and the role of cryptocurrency in their portfolios, Coinbase collaborated with Ipsos to conduct a special survey, interviewing 4,350 American adults, including 2,005 investors with investment accounts. The core conclusion of the survey is as follows: Generation Z and younger investors, such as Millennials, are more inclined than any previous generation to actively manage their investments, more willing to embrace non-traditional assets, and more likely to view cryptocurrency as a core component of their personal financial future.

A Generation Rejected by the Traditional Wealth Ladder

Young investors are far more optimistic about the economy than older generations, but they believe the existing financial system is not designed for them. Survey data shows that nearly seven in ten (73%) young people feel that their generation finds it harder to accumulate wealth through traditional means compared to their parents' generation; this view is shared by only 57% of older respondents.

They have witnessed skyrocketing housing costs, mounting student debt, and sluggish wage growth. In this context, more and more young people are seeking alternative wealth accumulation methods that go beyond the traditional "home equity + stock portfolio" model.

Non-Traditional Asset Allocation Three Times That of Older Generations

This anxiety is directly reflected in their asset allocation strategies. The survey shows that young investors allocate 25% of their investment portfolios to non-traditional asset classes such as cryptocurrency, financial derivatives, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and other emerging products. This proportion is three times that of older investors, who allocate only 8% to non-traditional assets.

The proportion of stock holdings is roughly similar across different generational groups, with the core difference being that younger investors have added more diverse allocations beyond stocks. They are more actively seeking income opportunities beyond traditional stock dividends and are more willing to experiment with various new investment tools and emerging markets to narrow the wealth gap.

Cryptocurrency is Not a Side Investment, But a Core Allocation

This generational shift in investment philosophy is most vividly reflected in the level of acceptance of cryptocurrency. The report shows that 45% of young investors currently hold cryptocurrency, while this figure is only 18% among older investors. Additionally, nearly half (47%) of young investors wish to get ahead of the general market and be the first to engage with new crypto assets; in contrast, only 16% of older investors share this desire.

In the eyes of the younger generation, cryptocurrency is not merely a speculative trade but an important avenue for them to catch up on wealth. Eighty percent of young people believe that cryptocurrency provides their generation with more financial opportunities outside the traditional financial system; at the same time, another eighty percent are convinced that the status of cryptocurrency in the future financial system will significantly increase. Among older investors, only about sixty percent agree with this view.

The younger generation's enthusiasm for exploring emerging markets extends beyond spot cryptocurrency; they also desire to engage with more non-traditional assets. Data shows that eighty percent of young investors are willing to take the lead in trying new investment opportunities, while this attitude is held by less than half of older respondents. Young investors maintain a strong interest in emerging non-traditional products such as cryptocurrency derivatives, prediction markets, 24/7 stock trading, initial token offerings, altcoins, and decentralized finance lending.

The Impact of This Trend on Future Markets

The young investor group has demonstrated distinctly different characteristics: they trade more frequently, are willing to take on greater risks for higher returns, and are shifting a significant portion of their investment portfolios toward non-traditional assets centered around cryptocurrency. At the same time, they are driving the entire financial industry to transform toward meeting the needs of the internet-native generation, creating platforms that operate around the clock and support multi-asset trading.

Original Link