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More than 6% of British citizens own cryptocurrency as of March 2022, a statistic that has more than doubled since 2018, with older Gen Z and younger millennials accounting for 37% of total ownership in the UK. The extraordinary stories of vast returns and overnight millionaires have fuelled this bedroom day-trading economy, with lockdowns seeing rise to these new investment communities through chat rooms like Reddit and apps like Robin Hood. This tribe was responsible for the Gamestop phenomena, the silver short squeeze and other audacious trades that for the first time in history challenged Wall Street investors. Crypto however has turned out to be more volatile than anticipated.
Decentralised finance (DeFi) was born out of societal disdain towards central banks after the reckless financial lending and ultimate bailout of 2008. Technologists wanted to create a new financial system that didn’t rely on banks and brokers, instead a system built on blockchain-based technology, where information is stored across a network of computers rather than being controlled by one single entity.
