How Gen Z is hooked on cryptocurrency and NFTs

The lure of making quick money has always drawn young people to invest in risky assets. For Gen Z, it’s the volatility – and the decentralized nature – of digital assets like cryptocurrency and NFTs that are attractive. But they’re unregulated, meaning there’s little investor protection.

“All my friends have been talking about it [cryptocurrency] So one day I just decided why not just jump in and see if I can make some money,” says 20-year-old Paxton See Tow.

All he needed was his phone and trading thousands of dollars worth of assets was just a click away.

Generation Z — also known as Zoomers — is the age group born in the mid-1990s to early 2000s. They grew up online, played games and met friends virtually, so the transition is natural.

Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies, while a “non-fungible token” (NFT) is a way of owning an original digital image that’s touted as a digital answer to collectibles.

Just over a year ago, Paxton bought S$1,000 ($743; £739) worth of bitcoin – one of the most popular cryptocurrencies – which immediately gave it a 10% profit. He decided to quadruple his portfolio. But then the price dropped.

“There’s always the saying ‘buy low, sell high’, but I did the complete opposite. I let my emotions get the better of me,” he says.

He had lost a thousand dollars on top of all the money he had invested before he could pull out his money and recalibrate his strategy.

For another, older trader, Kelvin Kong, the loss was much greater. After hitting six figures in 2017, he lost more than half a million dollars the following year.

“I lost everything,” he says. “I thought I was the king of trading and my head was getting really big, so I figured nothing could trip me up and I kept buying,” he says.

He ended up with only a few hundred dollars left in his bank account.

“I think I almost fell into depression. I was having suicidal thoughts.”

The boom in crypto and NFT trading among young people worries him.

“A lot of them will lose money at the end of the day,” he adds.

But cautionary tales about people who have lost huge sums of money don’t seem to deter young traders.

For many, the first impression of digital assets is through “play-to-earn games,” which reward players with NFTs and cryptocurrencies that can then be used in-game or exchanged for cash.

“Every kid wants to make money playing games,” says a 23-year-old Malaysian trader who goes by the name of YellowPanther. “It’s the dream of my generation.”

A month after he started trading NFTs last August, he decided to quit his job as head of marketing to trade them full-time.

“The day job was long – eight to nine hours a day – and the pay was pretty low. I saw it as a great opportunity [NFT] space and I took the leap of faith,” he says.

YellowPanther is now partnered with 29-year-old Resh Chandran, who provides training in conventional equities, cryptocurrency and NFT trading in Singapore.

With Axie Infinity being one of the most popular play-to-earn games, Mr. Chandran introduces investors to primarily Filipino players who play on their behalf for a fee.

But he warns that space is a “wild wild west.”

The pandemic has only accelerated this growing trend of young people trading crypto and NFTs.

“There has been an extreme level of volatility in the market, so when you have volatility, you also have opportunity in the market,” says Lily Fang, professor of finance at INSEAD Business School.

“Young people were at home and it’s almost a gamification of the trade. All of these factors set the perfect stage for it to take off.”

For many young would-be traders, advice is readily available on platforms like YouTube, Twitter, and Reddit.

Brian Jung, 23, has a million YouTube followers, but compared to other crypto influencers, he’s known for being more cautious about the risks.

“I really have to be careful what I say to my audience because the last thing I want is for people to get hurt by these kinds of videos,” he told the BBC.

Brian’s family immigrated to the US from South Korea and he believes his background influences how he invests and how he talks about money.

“Our family has always struggled financially, so I’ve always had this thrift,” he says.

“My mom still works at the US Postal Service and my dad works at a warehouse, so I know an hour of their time is still worth dollars. I see what that’s worth regardless of how much income I’m getting now.”

Achieving financial freedom has also lured 22-year-old Jowella Lim — a rare trader — to the crypto world.

But alongside the opportunities to make money, Jowella enjoys being at the forefront of this new technology.

As governments around the world try to regulate the industry, she believes they will help legitimize crypto and NFTs.

“Regulators will eventually have to compromise and recognize that this is a technology they cannot ignore, especially when it is constantly invading this society,” she adds.

In addition to financial losses, another major danger is addiction.

“The crypto market never sleeps, so people literally get sucked in,” says Mr. Chamdran.

Andy Leach, an addiction therapist in Singapore, says he’s seen a surge in young — particularly male — clients becoming addicted to the thrill of trading crypto and NFTs.

“You have the ability to watch bitcoin go up and down, and basically this process, this rollercoaster ride, the ups, the downs, is available 24/7 on your phone,” he says.

Although Paxton and Kelvin have lost money in the crypto market in the past, they are trading again after examining it more closely.

I asked Kelvin if he thought he was addicted. “You could say that,” he smiles. “But I would call it passion.”