Crypto ETFs Still Hot, With Nearly 50% of U.S. Investors Planning to Buy: Charles Schwab

Demand for digital asset exchange-traded funds (ETFs) isn’t slowing down, with nearly half of all investors surveyed for a new report claiming they were planning to invest in the American crypto products. 

It isn’t just the interested boomers buying via brokerage accounts: millennials are also keen to snap up the new products, according to a Thursday report by Charles Schwab.

A total of 45% of respondents said they were planning to invest in digital assets via ETFs over the next year. Last year, that figure stood at 38%. 

“ETF investors grew more bullish toward several sectors and styles over the last year, and more of them plan to invest in cryptocurrencies via ETFs,” the report by the banking and investment firm reads.

An ETF is a popular investment vehicle allowing investors to buy shares that track the price of an underlying asset—anything from gold and foreign currencies to Bitcoin and tech stocks. 

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finally said yes to 11 spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in January. The green light—which came after a decade of denials—led to a flood of capital.

Bitcoin’s price rocketed to a new all-time high in March of $73,737 as a result, buoying the industry as a rising tide helped lift blue-chip digital assets.

Then, in May, the regulator unexpectedly approved eight of the Ethereum equivalents. Before the approvals, investors in the U.S. could only buy crypto futures ETFs. 

The Charles Schwab report added that 62% of those who said they were planning on buying the crypto ETFs were millennials; just 44% were Generation X, and 15% were boomers. 

The survey interviewed 2,200 individual investors between the ages of 25 and 75 with at least $25,000 in investable assets.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair