Examining trust in cryptocurrency investment: Insights from the structural equation modeling

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate investors' trust in cryptocurrency investment. The study employs a survey through a Qualtrics panel of 458 participants from the US with cryptocurrency investment experience. The data was collected in June 2022. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to construct the five-aspect model of trust in cryptocurrency investment and test the research hypotheses. This research examines technological, societal, regulatory, developers, and specifications aspects. The findings show significant positive relationships between trust and all five aspects of trust (i.e., technology, social, regulations, developers, and specifications). In addition, the multi-group analyses indicate differences between groups of education, age, gender, and amount of investment in terms of various aspects of trust. The significant differences are more evident in the aspects of regulations, social, and developer between two groups of females and males. These findings contribute to our understanding of trust in cryptocurrency investments, highlighting the importance of technology reliability, regulatory certainty, societal approval, developer transparency, and cryptocurrency specifications in establishing investor trust.