Country Culture and Bitcoin Early Adoption

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between national culture and the early adoption of Bitcoin. Utilizing a dataset comprised of Google Trends data on Bitcoin search interest for 64 countries, we construct measures of early Bitcoin adoption and examine their correlation with Hofstede's cultural dimension scores. Our findings reveal that in developed countries, lower Masculinity and Long-Term Orientation are associated with earlier Bitcoin adoption. In contrast, developing countries with lower Indulgence are found to adopt Bitcoin early. This paper contributes to the literature by highlighting how different cultural traits, moderated by a country's development status, can influence the Bitcoin early adoption.