A recent report by the BBC News details how Generation Z (“Gen Z” for short) has become completely hooked on the allure of cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Her is how Wikipedia defines Gen Z:
“Generation Z (or Gen Z for short), colloquially also known as zoomers, is the demographic cohort succeeding Millennials and preceding Generation Alpha. Researchers and popular media use the mid to late 1990s as starting birth years and the 2010s as ending birth years. Most members of Generation Z are children of Generation X.“
According to BBC’s report, Gen Z has become hooked on the volatility and decentralized nature of crypto. The report profiles 20-year-old Paxton See Tow, who says that he first got involved in crypto after listening to his friends rave about digital assets. Tow mentioned that his initial intention was to see if he could make some money from the new phenomenon, which offered easy trading via a few clicks on his phone.
Paxton made a quick 10% profit on his initial investment of $1,000 in Bitcoin, leading him to try to quadruple his investment. However, he got burned when the price quickly fell a year ago:
“There’s always the saying ‘buy low, sell high’ but I did the complete opposite. I let my emotions get the better of me.“
The report cites another trader, Kelvin Kong, who lost more than half a million dollars in 2018 after making six figures from crypto trading the year before. Kong said he “lost everything” in the 2018 market crash, but kept buying crypto in part due to a sense of invulnerability.
Eventually, Kong claimed he was left with a few hundred dollars in his bank account, and started suffering from poor mental health:
“I think I almost went into depression. I had suicidal thoughts.“
Kong told BBC News that he was concerned about the popularity of crypto and NFT trading among young investors, warning that “a lot of them will lose money at the end of the day.”
As the report notes, cautionary tales like Paxton and Kong don’t seem to deter Gen Z from continuing to invest in digital assets. Andy Leach, of addictions clinic Visions by Promises in Singapore, said that he had seen a jump in young, particularly male clients getting addicted to crypto trading.
He explained the danger of crypto trading:
“You have the ability to watch Bitcoin going up and down and basically this process, this rollercoaster ride, the highs, the lows, it’s available on your phone 24/7.“
