According to a survey by investment bank Piper Sandler, 9% of teens in the US were trading cryptocurrencies. Experts consider it dangerous that young people are trading in “high-risk assets”.
Piper Sandler’s Taking Stock With Teens survey surveyed 7,000 teens and about 630 of those surveyed said they had traded cryptocurrencies. However, the survey did not collect any additional information about which cryptocurrencies were at the disposal of young people, the respondents kept the cryptocurrency or actively traded it.
The findings raised the question of whether teens should have access to cryptocurrencies and what are the obligations of cryptocurrency exchanges in this regard. Kraken Europe Managing Director Curtis Ting said the cryptocurrency exchange “takes its role as an intermediary in creating a secure cryptocurrency market very seriously.” He added that all clients of the exchange must be over 18 years old, regardless of their location.
Most cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, Coinbase, and Gemini, have age restrictions for opening an account. But teenagers can – in theory at least – gain access to cryptocurrency.
“It is likely that teens received cryptocurrency as a gift from their parents,” said Ingo Fiedler, co-founder of Blockchain Research Lab.
According to him, cryptoassets could become available to young people through a free giveaway, in the form of payment for work, referral bonuses, a reward program for developers, or through other methods of generating income in cryptocurrency.
BlocksBridge founder Nishant Sharma is concerned that teens can easily access cryptoassets. Jason Deane, an analyst at Quantum Economics, echoed his opinion and said that teenagers should not have access to high-risk asset trading. He advocates for the development of security guidelines that include the creation of parent-controlled cryptocurrency accounts for minors, as well as strict restrictions on trading and obtaining parental consent for every action.
“Teens can be gifted with crypto assets or allowed to invest in them for a long time, similar to traditional financial instruments,” added Dean.
According to Sharma, the most important thing is to teach children about financial literacy, including cryptocurrencies, from an early age.
“I believe this information should be part of the media literacy programs that are being developed by schools and governments around the world to teach people how to identify false information on the Internet,” he said.
