DESPITE warnings, including from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, that cryptocurrencies are not suitable for retail investors because of the massive risks involved, a recent survey by OCBC Bank found that about 40 per cent of Singaporeans in their 20s and 30s are still keen on crypto bets in 2023.

The reasons are that many wish to retire “in style” by the age of 58 (a decade before Singapore’s official re-employment age of 68) and believe that their current incomes are insufficient. Many have also been influenced by the get-rich-quick claims of social media investment “gurus’’. The survey also found that 42 per cent of those in their 20s lost on their investments this year, as did 35 per cent of those in their 30s.

These are undoubtedly disturbing findings. Following the urgings of social media influencers is not the right way to invest, especially when the investments are cryptos, which have no fundamental backing and whose prices can crash to zero overnight. Yet these findings are not wholly unexpected, given that an entire generation has grown up in an era of easy money that extends back to 2008 when the US Federal Reserve drove interest rates down in the wake of the US sub-prime crisis.