Bitcoin adds appeal for millennials

George Lucas is chief executive officer of micro-investing platform Raiz Invest Limited. Since launching in 2016 the platform, which is targeted at a younger demographic, has grown to more than 218,000 active monthly customers and over $404 million in funds under management.

The platform's latest offering - Sapphire - is a portfolio that includes a 5 per cent direct allocation to Bitcoin, with the remaining funds invested across a portfolio of large cap global equities, and Australian corporate debt and money markets, all via exchange traded funds.

The allocation to Bitcoin may seem small, but it's enough to make the portfolio 'relevant' according to Lucas, particularly to the millennial investors that Raiz is mostly used by.

It took over a year to get the product off the ground. The regulator - the Australian Securities and Investment Commission - needed to be involved from the very early stages and Raiz also needed to find a Bitcoin exchange that was reputable.

"The big problem we have with Bitcoin is there are a lot of guys who call themselves custodians but are not registered custodians. We chose Gemini because its registered under New York state custodian law," Lucas says.

Gemini was started up by the Winklevoss twins of Facebook fame.

Look for the full Q&A with Lucas, including millennial investment trends during Covid-19, in our product newsletter on Monday.

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