Charles Schwab has released its Q3 investment indicator report[1], a quarterly report that breaks down investment allocation across the firm’s brokerage accounts. It corroborates what most of us have known for a while now: Millennials are more attuned to the value of bitcoin than their Gen-X and Boomer counterparts.
According to the report, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust[2] (GBTC) was the fifth most popular equity across Millennial accounts managed by the brokerage firm, representing 1.84 percent of all assets held under management for the age group. Millennials represent 12.9 percent of Charles Schwab’s clients, compared to 41.8 percent for Gen-Xers and 38.6 percent for Boomers.
Topping the list for Millennials was Amazon (7.87 percent), followed by Apple (6.18 percent), Tesla (3.22 percent) and Facebook (3.03 percent). In a twist of irony, Berkshire Hathaway — a holding company founded and helmed by famed bitcoin bear Warren Buffett — lagged just behind GBTC at 1.73 percent.
By contrast, Berkshire Hathaway featured more prominently for both Gen-X and Boomer investors, taking up the third spot in both categories for 2.37 and 2.75 percent, respectively. Whereas Amazon topped Apple for the Millennial age group, these two stocks traded places for Gen-Xers and Boomers, with Apple usurping the top spot from Amazon.
Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust did not break into the top ten of Schwab’s Gen-X and Boomer portfolios, nor did Tesla or the Walt Disney Co. Even so, to see GBTC featured among blue chip stocks in the Millennial category could be considered a legitimizing milestone for an asset that Warren Buffett has lambasted as “rat poison squared.”
And it also speaks to the notion that Millennials, accustomed to growing up in an ever-evolving digital environment, will warm up to bitcoin before their older generational counterparts. Per a U.S.
