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A significant majority of Australians under 50 regret their investment choices, with cryptocurrency named the ‘missed investment opportunity’ of the decade, according to new data from Swyftx’s 2025 Australian crypto survey.
The research by YouGov shows only 4% of Millennials and Gen Zs believe they made the right investment choices ten years ago, compared to 12% of Baby Boomers and 20% of Australians aged 77 and over.
Property and cryptocurrency are tied as the investments that Gen Z and Millennials most wish they had made a decade ago. Four in ten (39%) wish they had invested in property and cryptocurrencies in 2015, while 35% regret not buying shares in major tech companies. In contrast, 45% of Australians over 50 say they wished they had invested in property.
The YouGov research shows that one in five (4.5 million) people in Australia currently own crypto. This is around the same as last year, with a third (34%) of Gen Z now holding bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
The price of Bitcoin has risen by more than 40,000% over the last decade and hit new highs in October. Apple shares have rallied by around 800% during the same period, while average national property values in Australia have risen by some 74% since 2015.
Swyftx CEO, Jason Titman, said: “An unprecedented number of young Australians have turned to emerging asset classes as a means of diversifying their investments. There is now no question that Gen Zs and Millennials are more comfortable owning intangible assets than other generations.”
“There is a subversive spirit baked into Bitcoin’s DNA that appeals to younger Australians and its annualised volatility is basically seen as a non-issue by a lot of young investors.”
Other key findings in this year’s full report include:
Gen Z reported the highest average profits from their trading activities over the last year at $9,958
Just over four million Australians who don’t currently own crypto say they are more likely to invest in digital assets when they are regulated
For a third year in a row, the gap between millennials who say they intend to purchase equities and those who intend to purchase crypto has narrowed (from 12% percentage points in 2022 to five percentage points today).
Titman said the unaffordability of real estate was prompting younger Australians to diversify into emerging asset classes.
“Young people are totally disconnected from the traditional Australian dream of owning their own home and bitcoin represents an opportunity get ahead,” says Titman.
“There is a feeling among Gen Zs and Millennials that if you want to get on the property ladder, you need a level of exposure to high beta assets as part of a diversified portfolio. If current trends continue, crypto will flip equities as the preferred investment for Gen Zs and Millennials in a couple of years.”
Internationally, the conversation around diversification is evolving. The US passed legislation on stablecoins in July and law makers in the country are currently working on wider market structure laws. The European Union introduced crypto market rules at the start of the year.
Globally, increased legal certainty around digital assets has led to a significant increase in investment. Inflows into U.S. bitcoin exchange traded funds hit record highs in October as the world’s largest cryptocurrency hit new highs of US $126K.
U.S banks including Morgan Stanley have said they are just months away from offering crypto trading to retail customers.
The YouGov of 3009 adults was conducted on behalf of Swyftx between the 15 and 22 of July. The margin error for the research is 1.66%
The full 2025 Swyftx crypto report is available here
ENDS
For more information, contact Swyftx head of corporate affairs, Tom Matthews: [email protected] or +61 413 938 247
About Swyftx
Swyftx is an Australian cryptocurrency exchange. The Swyftx Group supports over 1.5 million retail, business and SMSF customers across the ANZ region and the US. Swyftx is AUSTRAC registered and ISO 27001 certified.
About the survey
All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 3,009 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 15th – 22nd July 2025. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all Australian adults (aged 18+).
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