Bitcoin Global News (BGN)

March 27, 2018 -- ADVFN Crypto NewsWire -- The Student Loan Report (studentloans.net) just released the results of a survey of 1,000 current college students with student loan debt. When asked “Have you ever used student loan money to invest in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin?” 21.2% of the students answered “Yes.”

“I was definitely surprised,” said Drew Cloud, The Student Loan Report's founder. “Living on a tight budget, one would think students would spend that money on groceries, rent or school supplies rather than bitcoin and ethereum.”

Students often borrow more than they end up needing for a semester of classes, with the average student borrower getting $2300 total for a semester. Once the financial aid office takes out the money necessary to pay for courses, they send a refund check from any leftover money to the student borrower to be used for living expenses.

A student who spends the refund on cryptocurrencies is violating their agreement with the government. The U.S. Department of Education issued this statement: “Federal student aid funds are to be used only to help meet the costs of attending an eligible institution of higher education. Investing is not considered an appropriate use of federal student aid funds.”

The behavior of college student borrowers mirrors the cryptocurrency buying public's behavior in general. A Coindesk survey of 3000 cryptocurrency investors found that 20% of all people who own cryptocurrencies went into debt to buy them.

By: BGN Editorial Staff