A full quarter of affluent American millennials are using or holding cryptocurrency. That’s among the findings in the Millennials with Money report from Edelman.

The survey defines affluent millennials as aged 24-38, making $100,000 in individual or joint income, or having $50,000 in investable assets.

An additional 31% are interested in using cryptocurrency.

The numbers surprised Deidre Campbell, Edelman’s Global Chair of Financial Services. But, she adds, it’s not a shocking figure to the millennials she speaks with.

“Anyone that has crypto tells me they wish they bought it sooner,” she says.

Millennials also prefer cash more than other generations. Campbell says that the strong habit of saving makes millennials comfortable with risks associated with crypto. It should be noted that it’s been a brutal year for cryptocurrencies: after a huge run-up in 2017, so far this year bitcoin is down 54%, while other coins like ether and litecoin have dropped further.

“It’s not inherently that they’re riskier,” Campbell explained. “But rather, better supported with savings. So they’re open to different opportunities.”

Campbell also says that because millennials tend to be more skeptical of the financial services sector, blockchain technology, upon which cryptocurrency is built, has appeal.

“I think it’s a sense of a younger generation being open to more risk in their portfolio and willing to try new things with crypto.”

A dark outlook

The report found that millennials – and affluent millennials in particular – are wary of the financial system.

More than three-quarters of affluent millennials said that it’s “just a matter of time” before another financial crisis hits. That’s compared to 58% of non-affluent millennials. They are also more fearful of personal information being stolen. A full 75% are worried that the global financial system will be hacked, compared to 58% of their non-affluent counterparts.

A 2016 Facebook report found only 8% of millennials surveyed trusted financial institutions to give them guidance. This general distrust has given rise to saving and investing apps like Acorns, Robinhood, and Stash. The low-cost and easy-to-use platforms have been particularly appealing to millennials who shy away from more traditional investing methods.

It’s no surprise to Campbell that, with such a dark outlook of financial institutions, nearly 75% of the affluent millennials surveyed believe blockchain makes the global financial system more secure.

“A lot of people have a hope that blockchain will be a part of the answer for security and data security,” Campbell said. (Blockchain is a decentralized distributed ledger that is open to the public and can record transactions; it is the technology that underpins bitcoin, and has other applications, including in the financial services area.)