Issue No. 4: Still Hate Bitcoin?  You’re Fast Becoming a Minority

Four percent of U.S. adults 18-65 own bitcoin. That percentage could easily lead you to conclude that there’s little consumer interest. But you couldn’t be more wrong: 63% of adults describe themselves as crypto curious, according to a recent survey by Gemini, a crypto exchange.

The path to participation begins with awareness. Check. It’s now almost impossible to find someone who hasn’t heard of bitcoin. But few know what it is, how it works, why it exists and whether it matters. But people now want to know – and they want their financial advisors to tell them. If you can’t, your clients will find an advisor who can. That means your AUM is at risk.

Indeed, 82% of investors say they expect their financial advisors to be knowledgeable about bitcoin, and 62% say they would switch advisors to get advice about it, according to a survey by NYDIG, a $6 billion manager of digital assets.

A financial advisor who doesn’t know much about bitcoin is becoming as irrelevant and unreliable as an advisor who doesn’t know much about annuities. You might not like annuities, but you can certainly explain them to your clients. You need to be equally knowledgeable about blockchain technology and digital assets.

And there’s a simple reason for this: bitcoin isn’t going away, and it’s fast becoming ubiquitous. There are 15,000 Bitcoin ATMs worldwide, and new ones are being installed at the rate of one per hour. PayPal and Venmo let users buy bitcoin on their platforms. Visa and MasterCard are both letting customers buy bitcoin and make purchases with it via their credit cards. AXA is letting European customers pay insurance premiums in bitcoin. The largest department store chain in Switzerland is rolling out bitcoin gift cards. A defense contractor is letting employees receive their salary in bitcoin. On National Burrito Day, Chipotle gave away $100,000.00 in bitcoin. Uber will soon let riders pay in bitcoin.

More than half (58%) of the 3,400 institutional investors surveyed by JP Morgan said digital assets are here to stay and 22% of them said they’re planning to buy. Seven percent said bitcoin will become “one of the most important assets” investors own.

A new report from Citigroup says bitcoin could become the currency of choice for international trade. CALPERS, the nation’s largest pension plan, recently bought shares in Riot Blockchain, the nation’s largest publicly traded bitcoin miner. Ted Mathas, the CEO of New York Life and chair of the American Council of Life Insurers, is now on NYDIG’s board. Both New York Life and Morgan Stanley have invested in the company.

No wonder endowment funds are buying bitcoin, including those at Harvard, Yale, Brown, University of Michigan, Dartmouth, Stanford, MIT and University of North Carolina. Billionaires, too, are investing, including Mark Cuban, Ray Dalio, Paul Tudor Jones, Josh Harris, Jeff Yang, Anthony Noto, Vincent Viola, Joe Moglia, Elon Musk and others.