More top business schools in the United States are offering cryptocurrency and blockchain classes as part of their MBA programs.

“This is a grassroots movement,” said Adam White, a vice president and general manager at cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. “These are students saying, ‘hey, university, I want to take a class on this.'”

Coinbase recently conducted a study that indicates that almost half of the world’s top universities now offer at least one crypto-centric class.

“I think they see the development, the birth of a new industry,” White said. “In many ways, we look at things like bitcoin and Ethereum and blockchain as the Internet 3.0.”

Following the crypto market’s explosion in 2017, top business programs such as the Wharton School and Stanford Business School expanded their course offerings to include bitcoin, blockchain, and the crypto industry in response to growing demand from students and from recruiters.

“We’re at the point where there’s a critical mass to teach this domain,” Wharton professor Kevin Werbach told CNBC. “There will be a real phenomenon in business for the foreseeable future. Five years down the road, there won’t be too many major business schools that don’t offer similar classes.”

Corporate Recruiters Target Crypto-Savvy MBA Students

John Jacobs, the executive director of Georgetown Business School, said he has been inundated with calls from Wall Street recruiters who want MBA graduates with knowledge of crypto.

“[They constantly say],’We need people to understand how to apply blockchain technology,'” Jacobs said.

Jacobs said any top MBA program that doesn’t arm its students with knowledge of bitcoin and blockchain is putting them at a disadvantage in the rapidly evolving marketplace.

“Any world-class program is going to have to equip students in this field to compete,” Jacobs said. “It’s everywhere we turn around.”

Meanwhile, bitcoin bull Mike Novogratz, the founder of cryptocurrency investment firm Galaxy Digital Capital Management, has set a $10,000 year-end bitcoin price target.

Crypto Bull Mike Novogratz Sets $10000 Bitcoin Price Target, Citing 'Institutional FOMO' https://t.co/0xTjdCE9fd pic.twitter.com/DRWQdH7sIV — Hedge Fund Focus (@hedgefundfocus) September 23, 2018

As the Inquisitr has reported, Novogratz said institutional “FOMO” (fear of missing out) will drive the market up over the coming months.

“Three to six months from now, there will be an ‘all-clear’ sign for…big institutions and pension [funds] to start investing,” said Mike Novogratz, a former hedge fund manager and Goldman Sachs alum.