Why ‘Ok Boomer’ May Not Apply to the Cryptocurrency Industry
The fall of 2019
leading up until today has seen the rise of an incredibly popular meme among
millennials: “ok boomer.” The catchphrase can be used as a
response to any situation when a “boomer” — the generation born
between about 1946 and 1965 — is perceived as so unable to understand millennial
anxieties and concerns due to their out-of-date sensibilities that the only
response to an argument with them is a dismissive (yet aggressive), “Ok
boomer.” that’s on karma #fyp #foryou #foryourpage #foryoupage #viral ♬
Congratulations – quaintcraig On the surface, the crypto world is the
exact opposite to old-fashioned “boomer” ideas about the way that the
financial world should work. It’s based on anarchist principles at heart,
decentralized, often anti-government, anti-establishment, anti-anything
mainstream. But for some reason, the 65+ age group (literally the aforementioned
“boomers,” just listen to the first lyrics of this TikTok song) showed a
41% increase in site visits on CoinMarketCap this quarter, which was
close behind the 18-24 age group’s 46.04%. This contradicts the news
headlines like “Millennials Would Rather Cop Bitcoin Than Disney
and Netflix Stocks: Boomers Don’t Care for Any of These,” and “Surprise!
Millennials Embrace Bitcoin While Boomers, Gen-Xers Hold
Traditional Wealth” — both copped from a fall 2019 Charles Schwab report that
ranked the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust as a top place that millennials stored
their assets, an equity not appearing in the boomers’ top list. While on-
site visits on CoinMarketCap do not directly equal investments in crypto
(we are, after all, an independent ranking site, not an exchange), this rising
interest in crypto prices from baby boomers must
mean something, right? And it’s not just the CoinMarketCap site. Our CMC daily
newsletter regularly receives comments from the 70+ subset on how they read our
crypto roundups daily over their morning coffee. It’s no coincidence that
Bitcoin was created by its ever-mysterious founder Satoshi Nakamoto after the
2008 global financial crisis: it’s meant to be a safe haven for
investors in times of economic disaster. And, as we all quite well know,
this coronavirus pandemic is currently causing one hell of an economic
disaster. — An aside: the 2008 financial crisis is also incidentally tied
up in the anger behind “ok boomer.” Today, (temporarily ignoring the
ongoing economic meltdown caused by COVID-19), millennials are widely
unable to achieve the same financial stability their parents had at their
age. Some aggression behind “Ok boomer” is due to this undercurrent of
resentment today’s younger generation feels towards these “boomers” for
their alleged role in creating the financial circumstances that prevent them
from, say, owning a house. Perhaps boomers’ piquing interest in
crypto prices is their way of exploring options to avoid yet another
financial crisis. Perhaps they, too, are concerned about the US Federal
Reserve’s ability to print an endless amount of money. Perhaps their
daughter (me) convinced them to write an article for their old job and paid them
in Ethereum and they want to see how it’s doing. Perhaps they have so much free
time on their hands now that googling crypto prices is that last new
thing to do that they haven’t done before in their entire lives. Perhaps their
grandchildren are on their computers and skewing the data. Only time will tell.
While no one is saying that boomers — angered by their portrayal in popular
memes and songs across the world — have risen up and turned to crypto as a way
to prove how hip they are and stop the “ok boomer’s” aimed at them daily through
cyberspace, it’s worth noting that the millennials’ comedic dismissal of this
older generation as completely out of touch with their own interests is not what
CMC data shows. What we found actually paints a different picture: a changing
world, economically and socially wracked by a global pandemic that has forced
families to shelter in place and multiple generations to spend more time with
each other than ever before, piquing a rising interest in an alternative
economic model — crypto. While we don’t know what these kids’ parents are doing
(24-65 year olds, you’re missing the bus!), it’s clear these younger millennials
and their grandparents have more in common than youth meme culture would make
you think.
The fall of 2019
leading up until today has seen the rise of an incredibly popular meme among
millennials: “ok boomer.” The catchphrase can be used as a
response to any situation when a “boomer” — the generation born
between about 1946 and 1965 — is perceived as so unable to understand millennial
anxieties and concerns due to their out-of-date sensibilities that the only
response to an argument with them is a dismissive (yet aggressive), “Ok
boomer.” that’s on karma #fyp #foryou #foryourpage #foryoupage #viral ♬
Congratulations – quaintcraig On the surface, the crypto world is the
exact opposite to old-fashioned “boomer” ideas about the way that the
financial world should work. It’s based on anarchist principles at heart,
decentralized, often anti-government, anti-establishment, anti-anything
mainstream. But for some reason, the 65+ age group (literally the aforementioned
“boomers,” just listen to the first lyrics of this TikTok song) showed a
41% increase in site visits on CoinMarketCap this quarter, which was
close behind the 18-24 age group’s 46.04%. This contradicts the news
headlines like “Millennials Would Rather Cop Bitcoin Than Disney
and Netflix Stocks: Boomers Don’t Care for Any of These,” and “Surprise!
Millennials Embrace Bitcoin While Boomers, Gen-Xers Hold
Traditional Wealth” — both copped from a fall 2019 Charles Schwab report that
ranked the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust as a top place that millennials stored
their assets, an equity not appearing in the boomers’ top list. While on-
site visits on CoinMarketCap do not directly equal investments in crypto
(we are, after all, an independent ranking site, not an exchange), this rising
interest in crypto prices from baby boomers must
mean something, right? And it’s not just the CoinMarketCap site. Our CMC daily
newsletter regularly receives comments from the 70+ subset on how they read our
crypto roundups daily over their morning coffee. It’s no coincidence that
Bitcoin was created by its ever-mysterious founder Satoshi Nakamoto after the
2008 global financial crisis: it’s meant to be a safe haven for
investors in times of economic disaster. And, as we all quite well know,
this coronavirus pandemic is currently causing one hell of an economic
disaster. — An aside: the 2008 financial crisis is also incidentally tied
up in the anger behind “ok boomer.” Today, (temporarily ignoring the
ongoing economic meltdown caused by COVID-19), millennials are widely
unable to achieve the same financial stability their parents had at their
age. Some aggression behind “Ok boomer” is due to this undercurrent of
resentment today’s younger generation feels towards these “boomers” for
their alleged role in creating the financial circumstances that prevent them
from, say, owning a house. Perhaps boomers’ piquing interest in
crypto prices is their way of exploring options to avoid yet another
financial crisis. Perhaps they, too, are concerned about the US Federal
Reserve’s ability to print an endless amount of money. Perhaps their
daughter (me) convinced them to write an article for their old job and paid them
in Ethereum and they want to see how it’s doing. Perhaps they have so much free
time on their hands now that googling crypto prices is that last new
thing to do that they haven’t done before in their entire lives. Perhaps their
grandchildren are on their computers and skewing the data. Only time will tell.
While no one is saying that boomers — angered by their portrayal in popular
memes and songs across the world — have risen up and turned to crypto as a way
to prove how hip they are and stop the “ok boomer’s” aimed at them daily through
cyberspace, it’s worth noting that the millennials’ comedic dismissal of this
older generation as completely out of touch with their own interests is not what
CMC data shows. What we found actually paints a different picture: a changing
world, economically and socially wracked by a global pandemic that has forced
families to shelter in place and multiple generations to spend more time with
each other than ever before, piquing a rising interest in an alternative
economic model — crypto. While we don’t know what these kids’ parents are doing
(24-65 year olds, you’re missing the bus!), it’s clear these younger millennials
and their grandparents have more in common than youth meme culture would make
you think.
