Whether Cryptocurrency is a threat or a revolution? An analysis from ESG perspective

Abstract

The authors make a fundamental initial effort to conduct a qualitative review on the digital financial revolution called 'Cryptocurrency’, mainly to provide a comprehensive discussion on whether Cryptocurrency is a threat to the Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) investing goals? The study also aims to draw the current landscape and future landscape of Cryptocurrency in the global marketplace. The paper makes a qualitative review of the most recent and relevant articles on Cryptocurrency published using qualitative analysis. Key findings of the study reveals that Cryptocurrency is an exciting financial innovation, but it remains a financial experiment. Cryptocurrency fails the test of objectives of ESG investing. It is further concluded that the more and more production of Cryptocurrencies is not good for the environment, and it is a real threat to the ESG investment goals. The findings of the study will help the prospective and potential investors in better understanding of the Cryptocurrency as the long-term investment avenue in the global marketplace. Even though Cryptocurrency received overwhelming response in the last decade or so, the academic research on Cryptocurrency is still at the budding stage, primarily because the academic literature of financial technology is at the nascent stage. Therefore, the present study makes an honest attempt to fill this gap and provide a comprehensive analysis of Cryptocurrency in terms of ESG investment perspective.