Who buys Bitcoin? The cultural determinants of Bitcoin activity

Sean Foley; Bart Frijns; Alexandre garel; Tai-Yong Roh

doi:10.1016/j.irfa.2022.102385

Who buys Bitcoin? The cultural determinants of Bitcoin activity

Sean Foley, Bart Frijns, Alexandre garel, Tai-Yong Roh

Department of Applied Finance

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

28 Citations (Scopus)

82 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We examine the relationship between national culture and a country's Bitcoin activity. Given that Bitcoin is a high-risk currency/investment that is frequently used for illegal purposes and whose market is relatively opaque, we focus on the cultural dimension of individualism, which has been related to financial market participation, risk-taking behavior, and overconfidence. Using unique data that includes the originating country for Bitcoin transactions, we examine the relationship between individualism and a country's Bitcoin activity for a sample of 80 countries between 2009 and 2020. We find a significant and positive relationship between a country's individualism and its use of Bitcoin consistent with cultural values affecting the demand for such high-risk currency/investments.

Original language	English
Article number	102385
Pages (from-to)	1-15
Number of pages	15
Journal	International Review of Financial Analysis
Volume	84
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.irfa.2022.102385
Publication status	Published - Nov 2022

Bibliographical note

© 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

Keywords

National culture
Cryptocurrency
Bitcoin
individualism
Individualism

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10.1016/j.irfa.2022.102385Licence: CC BY

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Cite this

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AU - Frijns, Bart

AU - garel, Alexandre

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AB - We examine the relationship between national culture and a country's Bitcoin activity. Given that Bitcoin is a high-risk currency/investment that is frequently used for illegal purposes and whose market is relatively opaque, we focus on the cultural dimension of individualism, which has been related to financial market participation, risk-taking behavior, and overconfidence. Using unique data that includes the originating country for Bitcoin transactions, we examine the relationship between individualism and a country's Bitcoin activity for a sample of 80 countries between 2009 and 2020. We find a significant and positive relationship between a country's individualism and its use of Bitcoin consistent with cultural values affecting the demand for such high-risk currency/investments.

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Who buys Bitcoin? The cultural determinants of Bitcoin activity

Abstract

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