Data provided to MarketWatch shows that most people buying and selling Bitcoin are men under the age of 30, according to MarketWatch. The data, which came from a fintech trading platform called Mode, broke down the demographics of its users and found that young men were disproportionately represented, compared to women or older men.

Among those trading Bitcoin on the platform, 79 percent are men and 64 percent are under the age of 30 (86 percent are under the age of 41). This aligns roughly with what most people will see walking into almost any Bitcoin community, whether message board, social media group, or email list.

MarketWatch speculated that the reason the notoriously volatile asset is so popular with young men is that they tend to be much more confident, some might say overconfident, in their trading prowess than other groups. This tracks with academic literature indicating that men tend to favor riskier investments than women: MarketWatch cited a 2001 study, which found that men trade stocks 45 percent more frequently than women (which, ironically, leads to lower returns in the long run due to accumulating broker fees). More recently, a 2018 study found that male financial advisers recommended riskier portfolio allocations than female ones. As far as the age factor goes, MarketWatch speculated that younger investors have yet to take the lumps that older ones have already experienced, and so move with less fear.