Will ‘boomers’ be willing to invest in an Ethereum ETF?

BlackRock launched a new video in order to get American boomers to invest in an Ethereum ETF (exchange traded fund). That ETF has been open for investment since yesterday and, as always, focuses on those slightly older customers who put their trust in BlackRock, still the largest investment company in the world (or some other company on Wall Street that launched an Ethereum ETF, there’s quite a few).

For large, institutional investors who are interested in crypto but do not trust the complexity and risks of directly owning digital coins or cannot ‘sell’ them to their own customers, an investment in such an ETF offers a trusted and regulated way to participate in the crypto story.

The Bitcoin ETFs that were launched at the beginning of this year were very popular and many, especially older, Americans took their first steps in investing in digital coins in this manner.

However, analysts believe that the Ethereum ETF model will be much less successful than the Bitcoin model, and there are several reasons for that.

Scarcity

Firstly, there is the issue of name recognition. It was easier for BlackRock to get American boomers to invest in a Bitcoin ETF because the name ‘Bitcoin’ is used quite often already in television series and films (boomers are not really on social media but watch and listen to traditional media channels). For Ethereum that name recognition is broader with younger investors.

Secondly, there is the scarcity. BlackRock’s selling point for an Ethereum ETF is the fact that Ethereum offers a future (thanks to the switch to proof of stake last year Ethereum uses much less energy than Bitcoin) and also offers more possibilities thanks to the ‘smart contracts’, but I Personally I don’t think this is a fabulous argument to win over ‘boomers’. It is much easier to sell them Bitcoin, where BlackRock simply has to point out the fact that there are ‘only’ 21 million Bitcoins and no more after that.

Vitalik Buterin versus Satoshi Nakamoto

Finally, there is the figure of Vitalik Buterin, the young founder of Ethereum.

I personally find him very interesting (longevity and complex discussions on geopolitics are my thing), but Vitalik is half Russian, which makes many older Americans shudder (for Europeans this not such a major issue) and secondly, the mystery surrounding Satoshi Nakamoto (the anonymous Bitcoin founder) is easier to sell than an introduction to a super skinny ‘savant’ like Vitalik.