Young Americans kept out of the housing market by years of rising home prices and historically high borrowing costs are increasingly looking at cryptocurrencies as an alternative to real estate to build wealth.

Often, they are forced to make a choice between the two—the promise of riches held by the rather volatile crypto market, or years of sacrifices to be able to step onto the ever-further-from-reach property ladder.

On Reddit, one of the most popular social media platforms among U.S. adults under 30 according to the Pew Research Center, several young users have asked for advice in the past year on whether to use their savings to buy their first home or instead invest in cryptocurrencies, seemingly stuck in what they describe as a