Amid Crypto Bear Market, Attention Turns to Small-Time Investors

Speaking at CB Insights' Future of Fintech conference Wednesday, Nasdaq president and CEO Adena Friedman hit on a theme almost everyone at the event echoed: the central role normally marginal figures - small-time investors and millennials in particular - play in the cryptocurrency market.

During the first day of the conference in New York City, Friedman spoke about retail investors - who she called "Mr. and Mrs. 401(k)" - and their interest in crypto tokens created via initial coin offerings, or ICOs, a funding mechanism that exploded in late 2017 and early 2018.

Still, several speakers noted that retail investors will need both help and protection in interacting with the high-risk, high-reward ICO market.

These are not wealthy investors, after all, who the SEC treats - in Friedman's words - "Like big boys, big girls."

In contrast, Vlad Tenev, co-CEO of Robinhood, the millennial-focused, mobile-only investing platform, expressed no hint of high-minded concern for retail investors.

This move into crypto - which is currently available to people in 16 states - came after large numbers of users began requesting that Robinhood list cryptocurrencies, Tenev said, making no mention of agonizing over how best to protect this group of investors.

No one seemed particularly eager to talk about the pain this bear market might have caused retail investors.

Friedman and Mulvaney hinted at it in the abstract but made no mention of the fact that many retail investors are nursing steep losses right now.

At the same time, speakers and attendees sometimes appeared to salivate over the goldmine that millennials and other small-time investors represent.

While some ask why regular people shouldn't be able to access potentially lucrative crypto opportunities, the space is rife with half-truths, sketchiness and outright scams, and in turn, another question presents itself: should often-inexperienced investors be expected to fend for themselves? These questions aren't likely to go away soon.