A Study of the Evolutionary Trends in Blockchain and Cryptocurrency: A Bibliometric Approach

Abstract

Abstract Purpose The popularity of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology has been increasing in recent years. Thus, the study uses bibliometric analysis to examine the development of research on cryptocurrency and blockchain trends. Need for the Study The very few researchers analyse the bibliometric trends in blockchain and cryptocurrency research to classify the articles according to research methodology and journal quality. Further, a complete study of citations or co-citations based on co-occurrence analysis needs to be added to the bibliometric research. Therefore, it is required to study this topic in detail. Methodology The VOSviewer software and Scopus analysis are used to conduct a bibliometric study on the biographies of articles published on cryptocurrency and blockchain trends. A total of 1,186 papers from the Scopus database are retrieved to analyse the trends in this field of research. Findings The study examines the total citations, papers with the most citations, authors and journals, prominent institutions and country contributions. In addition to listing the top 10 most significant articles with their years of publication and total citations, this study provides insight into the top 10 prominent journals of cryptocurrency and blockchain trends. Additionally, during the past 15 years, the United States and the United Kingdom have received the most citations and publications on cryptocurrencies and blockchain trends. This study also identifies and critically investigates the top 10 journals in the specialised field with the highest Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP), SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) and citation scores.