Professor Coin: What’s Driving Cryptocurrency Adoption Around the World

Professor Andrew Urquhart is professor of finance and financial technology and head of the Finance department at Birmingham Business School (BBS).

This is the fifth episode of the Professor Coin column, in which I bring important insights from published academic literature on cryptocurrencies to the Decrypt Readers. In this article we will investigate the adoption of cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrencies grow clearly in terms of size, scale and types of offers, which in total indicates the growing interest and influence they have on the traditional financial system.

They may have started life that is traded by only a select some computer programmers, but since the introduction of Bitcoin Futures in 2017 and the subsequent introduction of other derivative products, culminating in the Bitcoin Spot ETF launch in January 2024, more investors take knowledge of this innovative activa class.

The core of the fourth industrial revolution is artificial intelligence, information communication and technology, the internet of things and block chains – and PWC predicts that Blockchains will stimulate global GDP by $ 1.76 trillion by 2030.

China Places blockchain As one of the top five priorities, while other countries, including Germany, Japan, the UK and France, all see the potential benefits of more than $ 50 billion. The increased interest in investors in recent times may have changed the user base forever, and this acceptance can differ between industries, areas, regulatory domains and political rich. In this column I investigate what the adoption of cryptocurrency stimulates around the world.

Some Recent work Investigates the relationship between certain macro-national development indicators and cryptocurrency deployment in 137 countries, and is interesting that the countries with higher education, human development, democracy, legal quality and gross domestic product (GDP) have a higher acceptance of cryptocurrencies.

However, countries with less economic freedom and more corruption have experienced less approval, indicating that more open and free nation states have experienced adoption. This suggests that it is not corrupt, unskilled states that take cryptocurrencies, but more open, democratic and free states.

Trust, but verify

Now that we know that the economic and national variables influence acceptance in different areas, but what about trust? Trust is a social construct and a conviction that promotes economic growth, financial development and financial inclusion.

Trust has fallen in recent decades – and as the European president of the Central Bank Christine Lagarde noted“In this era of reduced trust, it is the financial sector that takes last place in opinion surveys.”

Work through Jalan et Alt Alto (2023) supports the work of Bhimani et Alt Alto (2022) By showing that countries with higher trust levels have a higher interest in and the approval of, cryptocurrencies, which confirm the importance of trust in the growth of the financial markets.

In a more detailed investigation, Saeedi and Al-Fattal (2025) Research which aspects of trust are important for the adoption of cryptocurrency and they think that women attach more weight to the confidence of regulations than men, while social trust is more important for older participants.

Defi -adoption

What about the distinction between the approval of cryptocurrencies and decentralized finances (Defi)? Recent work of Nguyen and Nguyen (2024) suggests that high acceptance of cryptocurrency can result from the combination of high population, high inflation, low social connectedness, democracy and uncertainty avoidance, while high human development, high population and high financial development seems to be the dominant configurations in explaining the defi -acceptance of a country.

But what impact has adoption and different types of adoption on cryptocurrencies? Recent work of Rzayev et Alt Alto (2025) Document that early adopters of cryptocurrencies stimulate cryptocurrency return and improve price efficiency, while late adopters contribute to noisier prices and efficiency. That is why early adopters are important drivers for any cryptocurrencies.

That is why the academic literature suggests that the acceptance of cryptocurrencies around the world varies greatly, but there are important economic and national indicators that explain acceptance. Furthermore, the type of adoption influences the performance of cryptocurrencies, indicating that not all attention is created equally.

For more information, see:

Bhimani, A., Hausken, K., Arif, S. (2022). Do national development factors influence the acceptance of cryptocurrency? Technological prediction and social change181, 121739.

Jalan, A., Matkovskyy, R., Urquhart, A., Yarovaya, L. (2023). The role of interpersonal confidence in the acceptance of cryptocurrency. Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, 83, 101715.

Nguyen, LTM, Nguyen, PT (2024). Determinants of cryptocurrency and decentralized financial acceptance – a configuration – exploration. Technological prediction and social opportunity201, 123244.

Rzayev, K., Sakkas, A., Urquhart, A. (2025). An adoptive model of cryptocurrencies. European Journal of Operational Research323, 253-266.

Saeedi, A., Al-Fattal, A. (2025). Research into trust in cryptocurrency investments: insights are the structural comparison modeling. Technological prediction and social change210, 123882.