Gen Z trusts code over bank promises

Welcome to our institutional newsletter, Crypto Long & Short. This week:

• Haider Rafique of OKX shares a firm study on the generational perspectives of crypto investing
• Top headlines institutions should pay attention to by Francisco Rodrigues
• Sky defies 2026 downturn in Chart of the Week

-Alexandra Levis

Expert Insights

Gen Z Trusts Code Over Bank Promises

By Haider Rafique, global managing partner, OKX

It’s no secret that the banking industry is worried about crypto disruption.

After months of intense lobbying, the Senate Banking Committee postponed its markup of market structure legislation, due in part to banks’ stance on stablecoin yield.

But it might not matter, because banks have a much bigger crisis on their hands: they’re completely missing out on younger consumers based on the basic principle of trust.

Given the behaviors we’ve observed on the OKX app around the world, we decided to conduct a study to understand generational perspectives in our evolving industry.

The key insights paint a clear picture: Gen Z and millennial consumers are nearly 5x more trusting of crypto compared to their boomer counterparts. Additionally, one in five Gen Z and millennial consumers say they have low trust in traditional financial institutions, while nearly three quarters (74%) of baby boomers maintain high levels of trust in the old system.

The “why” behind all of this is much deeper than viral trends and memecoins. This is a generation raised on open‑source code and real‑time dashboards who now expect the same transparency from TradFi.

And now, as the world moves on-chain and everything gets tokenized, it’s clear that young people see the digital economy as their stock market.

TradFi isn’t theirs. It belongs to their parents and grandparents.

A generation shaped by institutional failure

A recent FINRA and CFA Institute report suggests a sizable share of Gen Z investors now lean heavily into crypto relative to other assets — a behavioral signal that younger Americans are willing to look outside traditional channels when they don’t believe they’re getting transparency or competitive returns. According to the study, nearly 20% of Gen Z investors only hold crypto.

For banks, this should be a wake‑up call that trust is no longer something institutions can declare but something they must demonstrate.

Boomers built their financial lives in an era when institutions were the safest option available. Regulation meant protection, and trust was something you extended first and questioned later.

Gen Z has lived through the opposite. They came of age during the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, entered adulthood with high student debt and now face a housing market millions of units short alongside ongoing inflation.

They’ve also lived through years of policy whiplash on student loans, shifting repayment rules and weakened borrower protections. These reversals reinforced a simple lesson that institutional promises can change overnight. When trust is repeatedly tested, skepticism becomes rational.

Banks aren’t losing Gen Z to crypto; they’re losing them to trust.

Control over promises

That skepticism is reshaping what influences trust for younger generations. For boomers, security means regulatory oversight and the perceived stability of legacy institutions.

Contrarily, Gen Z consistently ranks platform security above regulation as the top driver of trust. For Gen Z, security is more personal and technical with direct ownership of assets, the ability to verify how systems work and the freedom to move value without intermediaries.

It’s why both Gen Z and millennials are 4x more bullish on crypto in 2026 compared to boomers. They can see transactions on-chain, self‑custody, audit protocols and understand the rules without waiting for a quarterly statement or a regulator’s update.

Transparency is central to this shift. Boomers tend to equate trust with regulatory approval, but Gen Z equates trust with visibility. They want to understand how decisions are made, how risks are managed and how incentives are aligned. They want clarity on fees, yields and conflicts of interest, and systems that are open by default.

Traditional banks have historically struggled here. Their value proposition was built in an era when limited transparency was often treated as a feature. And now, when a generation is accustomed to real‑time dashboards and proof of reserves, the idea of waiting for a monthly statement feels absurd. Transparency has become a baseline requirement for credibility.

The future of finance

Banks should be asking themselves: why do younger customers trust transparency more than tradition? Younger Americans want the stability of regulated finance paired with the transparency and control of digital assets, and they want products that reflect how they already interact with technology and money. The institutions that understand this shift and build for it will define the future of finance. The ones that don’t will continue to watch as younger Americans look elsewhere.

Headlines of the Week

Francisco Rodrigues

Markets stumbled this past week and miner capitulation intensified. That led to the steepest decline for Bitcoin’s mining difficulty since 2021, while corporate accumulation of cryptocurrencies and other assets continued and Russia moved closer to formalize crypto-backed lending.

Chart of the Week

Sky defies 2026 downturn

Sky has decoupled from the 2026 market downturn, outperforming BTC, CD5, and the CD20 index by 45%, 50% and 57% respectively YTD. This resilience is anchored by a consistent business model: January revenue surged 1.5x YoY to $19 million, fueling $10.4 million in YTD buybacks ($8.5 million in Jan; $1.9 million last week) and driving a flight to quality that pushed the USDS (Sky’s stablecoin) market cap from $5.8 billion to $6.5 billion.

Listen. Read. Watch. Engage.

Note: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CoinDesk, Inc., CoinDesk Indices or its owners and affiliates.