A recent study has shown that nearly half of teenagers believe they know more about cryptocurrencies than their parents.
Financial services company Wells Fargo was responsible for the study, published on June 2. 314 teenagers aged between 13 and 17 took part in the survey, alongside 304 parents with children the same age.
The study reported that while 57% of teenagers still primarily turn to their parents for advice on money and finances, 35% of them also learn from social media. More specifically to cryptocurrency, 45% of the teenagers surveyed believed they knew more about cryptocurrency than their parents. 50% of the participating parents believed the same thing.
Furthermore, the survey indicated that more boys (58%) would say they knew more than their parents regarding crypto than girls (33%).
On the social media front, subsequent reports indicate that teens turn to TikTok among other social media platforms for education on cryptocurrency. Mariana Martinez, family dynamics consultant with Wells Fargo’s Wealth & Investment Management group, explained:
“Social media has a profound influence on our younger generations. Those generations grew up with social media and often trust many of the platforms more than their parents do.”
TikTok is a hotbed of content relating to bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies. Reports indicate that videos on the platform that are tagged #bitcoin have nearly 4 million views. Meanwhile, those tagged #crypto have racked up similar viewing figures, in the 3.4 million region.
Youth interest in crypto
This survey comes shortly after the assessment that around three in four young people in Latin America are interested in crypto. Walter Pimenta, Senior Vice President of Products and Innovation at MasterCard LAC, commented on the Latin American youth’s interest in the crypto space during an interview, as reported on May 26. He quoted figures concluded in a survey MasterCard conducted earlier in May.
More specifically, he noted particular interest among millennials. Pimenta asserted that 67% of millennials are more willing to use cryptocurrencies now than they were in 2020. Meanwhile, another 79% were interested in learning more about cryptocurrencies. And 76% said they would use cryptocurrencies once they gained a better understanding of them.
Binance CEO warns against following social media to trade
Changpeng Zhao (CZ) took to Twitter on June 5 to warn his followers against trading based off “other rich people’s tweets.”
He stated “If you follow a rich crazy randomly swinging person’s tweets to trade, you will end up not rich.”
The Binance CEO has taken several veiled swipes at Elon Musk, who has become known for driving cryptocurrency prices with cryptic tweets. CZ made his position on Musk’s activities clear, with one tweet reading:
“Tweets that hurt other people’s finances are not funny, and irresponsible.”