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Cryptocurrency Trading and Gambling: Behavioral and Psychological Links

In addition to these results, the parallels between cryptocurrency and stock trading lend credence to the links between trading cryptocurrencies and gambling. Griffiths (2018) divides online day-trading addiction into a subset known as "crypto-trading addiction." According to Mills and Nower (2019), there is a 75% overlap between high-risk stock and cryptocurrency trading. In actuality, there is a connection between the three activities—gambling, stock trading, and cryptocurrency trading: Similarities to problem gambling have been found for both cryptocurrency trading (Mills & Nower, 2019) and stock market trading (e.g., Mosenhauer et al., 2021). Delfabbro et al. (2021) discovered that stock trading was a predictor of the frequency of checking cryptocurrency prices and the amount of time spent reading and researching about cryptocurrencies and their markets. Owing to these parallels, it is logical to believe that many conclusions drawn from the more in-depth research on the relationships between gambling and stock trading also hold true when considering the relationship between gambling and cryptocurrency trading. For instance, a Canadian panel of stock traders who also bet was compared to pure gamblers by Arthur et al. (2015). The former group was more likely to develop gambling issues, played more frequently, and participated in a wider variety of games. Because gambling and cryptocurrency use are structurally similar, the relationship probably applies to those who use both.

1. Trust and Blockchain Technology in Cryptocurrency Trading and Gambling

Blockchain technology, which serves as the technical foundation for cryptocurrencies and enables unmediated transactions between network participants, plays a significant role in the decentralization narrative. By using a computer protocol that accomplishes transactional security through deterministic computation in place of middlemen, the requirement for trust is diminished (Antonopoulos, 2014; De Filippi et al., 2020; Nakamoto, 2008; Werbach, 2016). This suggests that users have a certain level of faith or confidence in the technology and cryptocurrencies they are utilizing. This idea is corroborated by research from Mendoza-Tello et al. (2019), who discovered that the intention to use cryptocurrencies in e-commerce was positively influenced by the cryptocurrencies' perceived trustworthiness, and by Steinmetz et al. (2021), who found that cryptocurrency owners had significantly higher levels of trust in their possession than did non-owners. Furthermore, it was discovered that ownership of cryptocurrencies was predicted by high levels of trust. As a result, in the context of trading and gambling, the importance of trust may vary depending on whether one is trading stocks or cryptocurrencies—a distinction that the literature has not yet acknowledged. In addition to ideological motivations, user trust would add a psychological component to the range of bitcoin involvement.

2. Social Media Influence on Cryptocurrency Trading and Gambling Behavior

Social media represents yet another distinction between the cryptocurrency and stock markets (Phillips & Gorse, 2018; Yu et al., 2021). Events that are shared on social media platforms like Twitter (e.g., Ante, 2021; Ante & Fiedler, 2020) have a significant impact on cryptocurrency markets, affecting investor mood as well as price movements (Anamika et al., 2021). Social media has a significant impact on cryptocurrency markets, so it's possible that users of cryptocurrencies are keeping a closer eye on prices and social media activity than stock traders (Subramaniam & Chakraborty, 2020). This behavior is relevant when considering the relationship between cryptocurrencies and gambling. It is unknown whether the quantity of cryptocurrencies that a user owns has an impact on the intensity of their behavior, despite the fact that Delfabbro et al. (2021) were the first to measure respondents' cryptocurrency involvement intensity through an extensive set of variables – frequency of trading, daily monitoring intensity, and daily engagement. Therefore, more research is needed to determine the quantity of coins possessed and how it can affect user involvement. In summary, in addition to Delfabbro et al. (2021)'s classification of cryptocurrency engagement, a number of additional factors of involvement may have an impact on cryptocurrency use and its association with gambling.