Factors Affecting the Behavioural Intention to Use Cryptocurrency Market among Non-State University Students in Sri Lanka

Abstract

In the modern digital economy, cryptocurrencies are a relatively new and increasingly growing subject. The use of cryptocurrency is limited to developed countries due to the complicated structure and lack of knowledge of cryptocurrencies. The aim of this study is to analyse the impact of awareness and ease of use of cryptocurrency on the behavioural intention of cryptocurrency among non-state university undergraduates in Sri Lanka. The result of the study contributes to the potential investment prospects of cryptocurrency among undergraduates and validates the level of accuracy of knowledge on cryptocurrency among undergraduates in developing countries. The findings further contribute to enhance the international trade experience and promote cryptocurrency usage among the Sri Lankan community by encouraging more people to benefit from cryptocurrency transactions and encourage more diversified investment opportunities. In this analysis, cryptocurrency factors is the independent variable, and there are four sub independent variables: awareness, trust, ease of use, and risk. Cryptocurrency behavioural intention is the dependent variable. A survey was conducted among 379 undergraduates to collect information about the respondents’ perception of the attributes of cryptocurrency as well as their intention to invest in it in the future. The main objective of the study was to investigate the relationship between awareness, trust, ease of use, risk of cryptocurrency and the behavioural intention of cryptocurrency and Pearson Correlation analysis was used for that purpose. Cryptocurrency factors and the dependent variable have a positive relationship, with a 0.01 level of significance for correlation. According to the results of that survey, we selected the snowball sampling technique as the sample design of the survey. Furthermore, AMOS statistical software was used to analyse the data for reliability and validity. Cronbach's alpha for study constructs showed that all values are greater than 0.7, indicating that our data is generally reliable as it is 0.922.  The researchers found the overall validity using KMO and Bartlett’s test as the value of 0.849 and it should be more than 0.5 as it is. These findings aid in understanding people’s behaviour and predicting how successful and promising a cryptocurrency will be in the future.

Keywords: Cryptocurrency, Awareness, Trust, Ease of Use, Risk