Investor Sentiment Driving Crypto‐Trade in India
Sushant Waghmare, Dipesh Uike · 2023
The Indian market has become one of the largest cyprtocurrency markets in the world. The demand for the trade of cryptocurrencies is evident from the number of Indian exchanges that have taken root and grown in the past few years. The drivers instigating investor movement towards crypto-assets from the traditional option available among Indians is being evaluated in this study. The study aims to analyse and identify the key factors driving the investor sentiments towards trading in the highly volatile cryptocurrencies. It attempts to gain insight into the reasoning behind the investor decision to trade in them. Extensive review of literature sheds light on the factors driving investment in cryptocurrencies. It is evident that the awareness levels for crypto, the future of crypto investments and the potential returns that they are offering have created a huge interest among the general public. The reasoning behind trading and investing in cryptocurrencies are also unique in their nature. The adoption of taxation policies by the government although may seem like a deterrent however, the ‘Fear-of-Missing-Out’ or ‘FOMO’ seems to have caught hold of the investors in pushing such investment decisions. The sample consists of the retail investor and the investment advisors in India using the structured questionnaire. Stratified Sampling Technique was utilized for the purposes of this study. The Independent Samples t-test was used to analyse the data and final results were interpreted from them. The results showcase certain parameters such as awareness, promotion, global acceptance, future of investment, ‘Fear-of-Missing-Out’ or ‘FOMO’ etc. as some of the factors driving trade and investment in cryptocurrencies. There are significant differences in sentiments of Retail Investors and Investment Advisors. Gender also plays a role in sentiments driving these investment decisions and finally education levels of individuals are also critical as well.