11% of young Americans have invested their stimulus checks into crypto: Survey

Young Americans are choosing crypto over mutual assets and ETFs to invest their stimulus checks.

A new survey has found that more than one in ten Americans between 18 to 34 have invested part of their COVID-19 stimulus checks into crypto assets.

Conducted by CNBC and research firm Momentive, the survey queried 5,530 adults and found that 11% of the participants had purchased cryptocurrency with their stimulus money.

Roughly half of the respondents were found to have funneled their stimulus money into investments broadly — with 15% seeking exposure to stocks, 9% investing in mutual funds, and 6% backing exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

The majority of young Americans appear bullish on cryptocurrency’s future prospects, with 60% of survey participants indicating they see digital assets as a long-term investment. By contrast, 21% described crypto as a short-term investment, while 26% said they are engaging with the market out of excitement.

The appetite of young Americans for crypto appears to be growing, with a Harris Poll carried out in March indicating that only 7.5% of the respondents had invested their stimulus checks into digital assets.

The Momentive Poll also noted a surge in investment interest among Millennials and Gen Zers during 2020. The survey found that most young Americans used mobile trading apps to invest, while social media is their dominant source of market analysis.

Related: 98% of CFOs say their hedge fund will have invested in Bitcoin by 2026: Study

Those who were game enough to invest their first stimulus check into crypto last year are reaping handsome rewards.

According to Bitcoin Stimulus, citizens who invested the entirety of the first $1,200 stimulus checks issued on April 15, 2020 into Bitcoin (BTC) would currently be sitting on more than $8,600 — a 620% gain.

Young crypto investors in Australia are seeing sizable profits from their cryptocurrency investments too.

According to a survey of Australians commissioned by local crypto exchange Swyftx, 20% of the participants identifying as a Millennial or a Gen Xer have reported profiting by tens of thousands of dollars from crypto investments over the past 12 months.