Amid bitcoin and dogecoin chaos, college students and graduates insist they’re going long on crypto

Earlier in the pandemic, cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin BTCUSD, +9.43% were skyrocketing as investors across the globe turned to them during heightened economic uncertainty.

During the GameStop GME, +2.46% frenzy in February, investors starting to pay more attention and money to dogecoin DOGEUSD, +20.47%, a parody cryptocurrency supported by Musk that recently became the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

Those gains didn’t go unnoticed by millennial and Gen Z investors. 

During the pandemic, more than a fifth (21%) of college students or recent graduates invested in a cryptocurrency, according to a survey of more than 500 college students and grads published by College Finance, a site that specializes in advising student loan borrowers.

Most (70%) of the students and recent grads are tapping into their savings to fund their crypto investments while some 15% are using their stimulus check money.

At least, they were before Wednesday’s blood bath in crypto: Prices for bitcoin, the world’s most popular digital asset had broken below a number of levels viewed as support for the asset, including $42,000, and as of Thursday morning, hovers at $41,859.

Only a small share (5%) are using personal loans to fund crypto investments, according to the survey.

Millennial and Generation Z investors may be well-prepared to ride out the crypto storm, if they are putting their money where these poll results are, and staying in crypto for the long haul.

That said, tempting as it is, young investors should think twice about “buying the dip” in crypto especially if they’d be financing it through debt, Leeor Shimron, vice president of digital asset strategy at Fundstrat Global Advisors, told MarketWatch.