How will Gen Z (born 1997-2012 and now 12-27 years old) impact the future of the financial sector? Their financial behaviour may shed some light on that, according to a report by Bernstein analysts.

As Millennials (born 1981-1996, now 28-43 years old) and GenZ become a material part of household wealth, the way they manage their finances will help determine what future financial platforms will look like.

While banks and brokerages have had a long run managing the wealth of Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964, now 60-78 years old), over the next decade we may see new financial platforms emerge. Survey data by leading crypto exchanges such as Coinbase indicate the younger generations find the current banking system expensive, slow, and outdated.

They like the idea of assets that the government and big banks don’t control. A FINRA survey shows that 55% of GenZ in the US prefers to invest in crypto.

GenZ likes their finances on-chain rather than online, the report says. They find digital banking platforms clunky and opaque. GenZ prefers managing their finances on-chain, through decentralised finance apps and digital dollar stablecoins.

About 27 million wallets are active every month doing stablecoin payments on-chain. With the improvement in blockchain scaling technology, users can transfer $1,000 cross-border for less than 1 cent.

Almost $160 billion of US dollar stablecoins are live on the blockchain, and with the arrival of AI agents, a new model of stablecoin payments is expected to arise, the report says.

While institutional investors are typically not crypto users and thus often have a blind spot towards crypto, they may take a fresh look at crypto equity opportunities as a new cycle reboots.

DL News has reported that some financial services companies are already moving into the crypto markets, including Robinhood, with 60% of its assets from customers under the age of 43. Revout, Stripe, and PayPal are making similar moves.

Crypto market movers

  • Bitcoin is up 3.70% today at $59,998.60.

  • Ethereum is up 3.15% today at $2,419.35.

What we are reading

Crypto firm Circle to move headquarters to New York City ahead of planned IPO — Reuters

Institutions quietly accumulate Bitcoin as new crypto trends gain mainstream attention — TheStreet

TON users brace for billion-dollar airdrop deluge as concerns mount over network stability — DL News