DIGITAL assets are here to stay according to expert panelists at City A.M.'s summit, who dubbed crypto the 'rock and roll' of this generation.

At a panel discussion chaired by tech journalist Monty Munford, speakers were emphatic that young people will be at the forefront of crypto adoption going forwards. A staggering 20 per cent of the world's 125m strong crypto community are estimated to be under the age of 18 according to MELD co-founder Ken Olling.

"The rock and roll of this generation is crypto," said Clem Chambers of Online Blockchain. "Crypto will change the world."

While large institutional investors account for the majority of capital flowing into Decentralized Finance (DeFi), the ecosystem of crypto projects which offer decentralised alternatives to the financial services traditionally offered by banks, young people are a key group driving retail adoption.

"They are working with derivatives and liquidity, but can't get bank accounts," panelist Ken Olling said. "They can play Fortnite and tell you what a Fibonacci retracement is," he continued, claiming that he has met an 18 year old who was able to draw down $500k from his crypto holdings on his latest birthday.

"DeFi is finance without gatekeepers," continued Olling, stressing the broad appeal of alternative crypto assets. "That's what has been magnetic about it for the past year and a half."

While DeFi adoption has surged during the pandemic there are still a number of barriers to widespread adoption and the panel remained split on whether young people should be dipping their toes in murky and unpredictable crypto projects.

Meanwhile representatives from the UK's House of Lords, Binance and top lawyers are divided over the direction of crypto regulation. At City A.M.'s crypto summit yesterday, Lord Holmes, who founded the first parliamentary group on FinTech in 2016, called on governments worldwide to collaborate on regulation. He warned that global agreement on crypto trading rules is needed to level the playing field for investors. "We need to make sure every single citizen worldwide has the opportunity to benefit from crypto," said Holmes.

(c) 2021 City A.M., source Newspaper