Cryptocurrencies: Who is vulnerable and what are the vulnerabilities?

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Blue, Levon
Xing, Congcong
Pham, Thu
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2024
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Abstract

Australians are embracing new forms of digital finance products and services, which includes purchasing cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). There has been an increase in investment scams associated with cryptocurrencies. In this article, we sought to understand from cryptocurrency and NFT investors, who is vulnerable and what vulnerabilities exist. We surveyed 745 Australians aged 18 and over who have purchased cryptocurrencies or NFTs. We used sociological perspectives of consumer vulnerability that focus on internal and external factors to analyse our findings. We found that both socioeconomic advantaged and disadvantaged Australians are vulnerable. The vulnerabilities include concerns over security, unsolicited advice, limited options for learning, and insufficient financial and IT literacy. The findings suggest that online financial education is needed from trusted independent sources to help combat scams and to keep Australians and their crypto assets safe. We recommend that more opportunities to educate individuals about alternative forms of financial products are offered in compulsory, vocational and higher education settings.

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Australian Journal of Social Issues

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© 2024 The Author(s). Australian Journal of Social Issues published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Australian Social Policy Association. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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This publication has been entered in Griffith Research Online as an advance online version.

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Banking, finance and investment

Political economy and social change

Human society

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Blue, L; Xing, C; Pham, T, Cryptocurrencies: Who is vulnerable and what are the vulnerabilities?, Australian Journal of Social Issues, 2024

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