Teaching Kids Crypto - Without Teaching Them Self-Custody?

Binance has launched a platform for children as young as six. Sounds unsettling, doesn’t it? Exchanges are places where even many adults have lost money. So is it really ethical to bring kids into this environment?

According to Binance, trading isn’t available on kids’ accounts. Based on the promo video, children can only receive, store, and send crypto. Essentially, it functions as an alternative to pocket money.

Banks have offered a similar alternative for years - debit cards for kids. And there’s a certain logic to that: parents get visibility and control over how their children spend money.

But if children save rather than spend their pocket money, crypto can give them a far more meaningful experience. In early 2023, I gave my friends a wedding gift: a wallet with a small amount of bitcoin. The amount was truly tiny, so the couple didn’t do anything with it. Two years later, they realized the value in dollars had grown fivefold and turned into something substantial. That’s how they learned, through their own wallet, what makes bitcoin special.

Kids could benefit from that same experience.

• First, you give them a small amount of bitcoin in a wallet that shows the balance both in crypto and in your national currency. Day after day, they’ll see that the fiat value sometimes dips but usually grows.
• Then you give them a small amount of another cryptocurrency so they can feel the difference.
• Then you show them how to swap one crypto asset for another.

Soon they’ll understand that if they prefer bitcoin but someone accepts only stablecoins, they can simply swap and pay. And the reverse: if they receive stablecoins but prefer saving in bitcoin, they can easily convert and keep their savings in the asset they trust more.

But the beauty of crypto is that you can store it yourself. Binance Junior, however, will teach kids from an early age that letting someone else effectively hold your crypto is normal.

No, it’s not normal.