While bitcoin is still relatively new to mainstream investors, the next generation has already pronounced it the “dinosaur of crypto.”
“We’re looking at [bitcoin] in crypto years,” dogecoin millionaire Glauber Contessoto, 33, tells CNBC Make It. “We just like to tease bitcoin people. They’re so serious all the time.”
Indeed, across social media platforms like Twitter and Reddit, Gen Z and young millennial investors are starting to refer to bitcoin as “boomer coin,” particularly during the crypto’s major sell-off on Wednesday.
Many in this next gen investor cohort prefer to buy other cryptocurrencies known as altcoins or, sometimes, “s— coins.”
“RIP BOOMERCOIN,” one Twitter user wrote, along with ”#Bitcoin.”
Another Twitter user wrote, “I don’t understand why people still hold the BoomerCoin,” as bitcoin prices declined.
Of course, not all investors within this group agree – many are hodling bitcoin along with other digital coins. Tuesday, one Reddit user wrote a post titled, “The reason I’m still bullish on BTC, the ‘Boomer Coin.’”
Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, launched in 2009 and is seen by its supporters as a store of value that will appreciate over time. Its 12-year run opened the door for altcoins, like dogecoin – which was initially created as a joke.
While any cryptocurrency investment is considered to be very risky, experts say investing in altcoins is extremely speculative. Experts warn to only invest what you can afford to lose.
Still, various altcoins have recently soared in popularity as some new, young investors are seemingly willing to take that risk.
“Combine their excitement for finding the next big thing with their risk tolerance and unprecedented access to trading applications, and you have a generation that isn’t beholden to the conventional wisdom of traditional investors,” says John Wu, president of Ava Labs, a team supporting development of the Avalanche blockchain.
“This generation was too young to catch bitcoin, and are now on the hunt for the next big thing that offers more upside on their investing budget,” he says.
Indeed, even down from its all-time high of $64,863, bitcoin is priced at over $42,000 per coin as of Thursday morning (though it’s possible to buy fractional shares). Dogecoin, on the other hand, which surged in recent months, is currently priced at about 42 cents.
Though dogecoin launched in 2013 based on the “Doge” meme, which portrays a shiba inu dog, and its creators didn’t intend for dogecoin to be taken seriously, it is now one of the top 10 cryptocurrencies with a market value of over $53 billion.
“Doge is the millennial coin,” Contessoto says. “I believe that memes are the language of the millennials. Memes are the language of our generation, of Gen Z.”
“For dogecoin, the meme is the message,” Meltem Demirors, CoinShare’s chief strategy officer, previously told CNBC Make It. “As the influence of FinTwit [financial industry twitter] grows, so will the memes and the way they move our markets.”
“We gravitated toward doge because it’s pleasantly familiar. We come from a world of memes, and the future is cryptocurrency, so it only makes sense that we combine the two,” Contessoto says.
Other altcoins, like SafeMoon and Shiba Inu (known as the “Doge Killer”), were recently driven up by social media buzz – but are also deemed very risky investments by experts. Some have likened SafeMoon to a Ponzi scheme and a scam. There are endless options, from Ethereum, Binance Coin, to Cardano and more, all with strong communities built around them.
In fact, for the next generation of investors, referring to bitcoin as “boomer coin” can also be a way to support the altcoin of their choice.
“It’s a whole new world for the majority of young investors getting into [it] right now. You start researching and investing because you hear you can make money,” Contessoto says. “But then they discover the community … and it becomes bigger than just making money. It gives us all a bigger purpose as a team.”
But right now, they are mostly trolling — as Contessoto puts it, “most” bitcoin supporters just “aren’t really much fun.”
