The Nexus Between National Culture and Cryptocurrency Adoption: the Moderating Role of Financial Literacy

Cryptocurrencies are increasingly becoming more popular as cheaper, faster and more secure means of transferring money across the globe while offering diversification benefits to investors. This current study explores the effects of national culture on cryptocurrency adoption across 118 countries. We test how each cultural dimension from the Hofstede model affects cryptocurrency adoption. These are power distance, long-term orientation, uncertainty avoidance, individualism and masculinity. We subsequently assess the moderation effects of financial literacy on the linkage between national culture and cryptocurrency adoption. We employ analysis of variance (ANOVA) and stepwise regression estimations to probe into the magnitudes and significance of postulated relationships. Our results firstly indicate significant disparities in cryptocurrency adoption, but only between countries with high and low uncertainty avoidance. The stepwise regression results revealed a strong negative relationship between uncertainty avoidance and cryptocurrency adoption, with other cultural dimensions exhibiting insignificant effects. Moreover, countries with high uncertainty avoidance but whose adults are highly financially literate were seen to be less vulnerable to fears of uncertainties and risks when deciding to adopt cryptocurrencies. Our findings lay a foundation for further theory development and provide practical implications to cryptocurrency entrepreneurs, governments, users and businesses that accept payments in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.