It's no secret that the Millenials are ahead of the curve when it comes to investing compared to generations before. We are seeing younger and younger individuals turning towards investments, especially in cryptocurrencies.
“Every day that passes, bitcoin takes one more step towards becoming a global phenomenon that changes the way we think about our wealth, our time, and our freedom,” says crypto exchange Kraken in its latest report.
And in the current environment where the governments are announcing trillions of dollars worth of stimulus to prop up the economy hit by a novel coronavirus and interest rates have tumbled into negative territory, it would happen at a much faster pace.
The global coronavirus cases have risen over 475,170 and more than 41,358 deaths with New York becoming the epicenter of the US COVID-19 outbreak as the toll touches 3,000 in the city.
Just the tip of the iceberg
Facing one of the worst economic downturns, the US Senate acted with speed to unanimously approve the largest economic rescue package of $2 trillion in US history. The legislation would send checks to over 150 million American households.
The number of Americans signing for jobless benefits meanwhile is expected to soar at its higher level after the shutdowns. While economists forecast about 1 to 4 million claims, one million Californians have already filed unemployment claims this month.
BREAKING: The US just reported 3.28 million unemployment claims.
— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) March 26, 2020
To put the 3.28 million unemployment claims in perspective, this is more than 4x higher than any week of unemployment claims in history.
I fear this is going to get worse before it gets better. Please be kind to those around you. You never know what they're dealing with🙏🏽
— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) March 26, 2020
“It’s the tip of the iceberg, and they’re going to be ugly. It depends on the speed at which the claims were filed, and the next week will probably be worse,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton adding,
“This will be the first shock and awe. … It’s terrifying, but it’s why nobody is going to tell Congress they did too much.”
Amidst all this, yields on the 1-month and 3-month Treasury bills fell into the negative, a week and a half after the Fed cut its rate to zero. As investors flock to the safety of fixed income, for the first time yields fell to minus 0.053 on one-month and minus 0.033% on three-month bills.
Being the most liquid instrument, they are seen much like cash. With this plunge in yields, the US has joined the ranks of Japan and Europe that have negative-yielding debt. In Germany, all government fixed income instruments are below zero except for the 30-year bonds.
A generational shift to boost bitcoin
Unlike cash which the government has in unlimited quantity and that has started to cost to keep in banks, bitcoin is a deflationary asset that only ever gonna have 21 million supply.
As per Kraken’s report, In the US alone, the generational shift would see $70 trillion being transferred from Boomers to Bitcoin-friendly generations. This nearly a trillion-dollar, or $971 billion investment in bitcoin could be much higher if world investment is also taken into account.
As we have seen, millennials are already investing “heavily” in the world’s leading digital currency. Moreover, a 2019 survey revealed that while 42% of younger respondents are likely to purchase bitcoin in the next 5 years, 8% of the older crowd is also interested.
All of this puts the implied price of bitcoin at about $350,000 in 2044.
