Bitcoin Under the Christmas Tree

It seems that the era of socks, mugs, and figurines is finally giving way to digital assets. According to a Visa survey conducted in October among 1,000 adult respondents worldwide, 45% of Generation Z representatives in the United States aged 18 to 28 said they would be happy to receive cryptocurrency as a holiday gift. For nearly half of young Americans, crypto is no longer perceived as an exotic toy for geeks but as a normal element of modern financial reality. Simply put, toys and collectible trinkets are no longer in fashion – bitcoin or another digital currency is increasingly appearing on wish lists.

However, the question is not whether young people want to receive crypto, but how sensible it is to give it as a gift. And here, expert opinions are noticeably more cautious than the enthusiasm of the TikTok generation.

Flavio Landivar, a certified financial planner and senior advisor at Evensky and Katz/Foldes Wealth Management in Florida, states plainly that cryptocurrencies are a volatile and speculative instrument that is poorly suited as a gift if you are counting on stable value growth. Unlike publicly traded stocks or ETFs, which represent ownership in a real business, cryptocurrency has no intrinsic fundamental value in the classical sense. According to Landivar, its price today is merely a reflection of how much someone is willing to pay for it at a given moment. This implies sharp fluctuations, sudden crashes, and no guarantees of recovery after declines.

That is why experts agree on one thing: a crypto gift should be viewed not as an investment, but as a learning experience. Ashton Lawrence, a certified financial planner and senior advisor at Mariner Wealth Advisors, emphasizes that any gift in the form of cryptocurrency should be positioned as a long-term experiment and an element of financial education, rather than a “ticket to wealth.” If the goal is capital growth with lower risks, he advises choosing traditional ETFs that track a broad stock market.

The size of such a gift also matters. Mike Casey, a CFP, early bitcoin supporter, and president of American Executive Advisors, believes that an amount of around $50 is an ideal starting point for a crypto gift for birthdays or holidays. We are not talking about thousands of dollars – a small amount reduces risks and psychological pressure while still providing real experience with the market.

If choosing a specific cryptocurrency, Casey recommends bitcoin. According to him, it has the highest level of global adoption, a fixed supply, and the longest history. Theoretically, this makes bitcoin similar to a digital analogue of a scarce resource, like a precious metal. Casey also reminds that historically, after every major drop, bitcoin has eventually gone on to set new highs. Over the past five years, its price in U.S. dollars has risen by about $74,000 – more than 400%. At the same time, it remains an extremely volatile asset even now: at the time of assessment, bitcoin was trading around $86,000, which is 32% below its all-time high of $126,000 reached in October.

This very instability, in Casey’s view, makes bitcoin particularly useful from an educational standpoint. Tracking the value of the gifted $50 year after year helps young investors get used to the fact that the market is not a straight line upward. Growth is replaced by declines, euphoria by fear, and that is normal. Such experience teaches patience, discipline, and an understanding of long-term goals.

“This is what investing is all about,” Casey says. “You need to have a long-term goal and understand that volatility is not the enemy, but part of the process.”

Ultimately, cryptocurrency as a gift is not about quick money and not about guaranteed returns. It is a symbol of a time in which financial literacy increasingly begins not with a bank account, but with a digital wallet. For Generation Z, such a gift can become a first step toward a conscious attitude to money, risks, and investments. And for those giving it, a way not just to please, but also to teach. The main thing is not to forget that even the most fashionable gift requires common sense and proper expectations.