New survey reveals 83% of millennial millionaires now own crypto

The generational gap in investment could create issues for wealth managers, says President of CNBC’s survey partner Spectrem.

2021 has proven to be the year of crypto adoption where institutional crypto investments and millennials turning millionaires were familiar headlines.

A new CNBC survey has revealed that a majority of millennial millionaires have invested a significant chunk of their portfolio in crypto and plan to continue their crypto investments in 2022. The survey polled investors with assets of $1 million or more, and 83% of the polled millennial millionaires revealed they had made crypto investments.

53% of total survey respondents said they hold 50% or more of their portfolio in crypto. Nearly one-third of the respondents have invested at least three-quarters of their wealth in crypto assets. While the poll results might come as a surprise to many, those who have been following the crypto boom in 2021 would know how a generation of TikTok investors made millions of dollars on investments in meme currencies.

The CNBC survey also revealed a massive generational gap in terms of investment. On one side, millennials are investing as high as 50% of their wealth in crypto, while on the other side, only 4% of the older generation have invested in digital assets and only one-fourth of the GenX owns crypto.

George Walper, president of Spectrem Group that conducted the survey for CNBC, said the new generation’s rising interest in the nascent crypto market could prove to be an issue for wealth managers. He believes these traditional managers would have to rethink their approach towards these upcoming investors. He explained:

“I’m not sure the wealth management industry has recognized that they need to think of these as completely different generations. Most firms were hoping to ignore it. But millennial millionaires are not going to just grow out of crypto.”

The survey also highlighted how the new generation is willing to take more risks with crypto rather than investing in traditional markets. The survey revealed that 48% of millennial millionaires plan to add to their crypto investments while 38% plan to hold and only 6% plan to reduce their crypto exposure in the coming year.

Apart from a surge in crypto millennial millionaires in the US, Australia has also seen a 10% growth in crypto adoption over the past year. The 2021 Independent Reserve’s Cryptocurrency Index (IRCI) that surveyed 2000 people found the crypto investment among Australians has grown to 28.8%, up from 18.4% in 2020.