A massive generational wealth transfer could reshape crypto markets over the next two decades as younger investors inherit trillions in assets and redirect capital toward digital assets at unprecedented rates.
Nansen founder Alex Svanevik predicts the impending shift will fundamentally alter crypto market dynamics, while recent data shows younger generations already allocating significantly more portfolio exposure to digital assets than their predecessors.
The transfer involves roughly $100 trillion changing hands globally within 20 years, with younger heirs demonstrating markedly different investment preferences than current asset holders.
“It’s like a tidal wave, you know, a tsunami that’s coming,” Svanevik told Magazine, explaining that even modest allocation shifts could double crypto’s current $3.05 trillion market cap. “There are all these kinds of forces that I think just drive crypto upwards.“
A recent Coinbase research found 45% of younger U.S. investors currently own crypto, compared to just 18% of older generations, with younger cohorts allocating 25% of portfolios to non-traditional assets, triple the 8% allocation among older investors.
Four in five younger adults believe crypto will play a larger role in future financial systems.
The preference gap extends globally. Asia Pacific’s high net worth people now see nearly half allocating over 10% of portfolios to digital assets, with 87% already holding crypto and 60% planning to increase allocations.
In fact, a very recent Bitget Research found 20% of Gen Z and Alpha respondents expressing openness to receiving retirement funds in cryptocurrencies, while 78% showed more confidence in alternative savings methods than traditional pension funds.
Similar to Svanevik, Galaxy Digital’s Zac Prince also emphasized the demographic inevitability earlier this month, noting younger investors prefer “an app first” platform approach over traditional brokerage relationships.
“The older people are going to pass away and pass the money down to younger people,” Prince explained.
He added that younger investors are “much more familiar with platforms like the one that we have at GalaxyOne, where it’s kind of an app first. Multiple kinds of products in one place, really intuitive user interface versus the traditional, you have to pick up a phone and call your broker.“
2025 UBS data reveals $83 trillion will transfer between generations over the next 20-25 years, with $29 trillion in the United States alone.