Non-Adoption of Crypto-Assets: Exploring the Role of Trust, Self-Efficacy, and Risk

Over the last years, crypto-assets have gained significant interest from private investors, academia, and industry. While the user population and their motivations, perceptions, and behaviors have been studied, non-adopters and factors influencing their decision have been left unexplored. This work fills this knowledge gap and sheds light on the effects of trust, perceived self-efficacy, and risk, which have been shown to be the key antecedents to technology acceptance, on the adoption intention of non-users. We propose and empirically test a theoretical model that explains the adoption intention of crypto-assets among those, who decided against using them. The validity of the model is assessed in a structural equation model analysis of 204 non-users. Results revealed that trust is a critical factor affecting adoption intention, with perceived self-efficacy having a mediating effect. Building on the results, practical recommendations are offered that could lower the entry barriers and facilitate the adoption of crypto-assets.

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