IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eneeco/v144y2025ics0140988325001628.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Retail crypto investors when facing financial constraints: Evidence from energy shocks and the use and downloads of crypto trading apps

Author

Listed:
  • Hodula, Martin

Abstract

This paper demonstrates a significant negative association between national energy price increases and retail investor participation in cryptocurrency trading, using data from crypto trading app usage and downloads from August 2015 to December 2022. The results hold even when accounting for concurrent changes in cryptocurrency prices, suggesting that investors' budgetary constraints influence their crypto investment decisions. The findings challenge the notion of cryptocurrencies as a hedge against inflation during periods of high energy prices, highlighting the sensitivity of retail investors to economic shocks. This study contributes to understanding the economic factors affecting cryptocurrency investments and underscores the need for diversified investment strategies in volatile economic conditions. As the cryptocurrency market matures, it will likely become less dependent on Bitcoin's price, with other factors such as energy price shocks, adoption rates, regulatory developments, and blockchain integration playing an increasingly important role. Additionally, global economic and geopolitical events impacting energy prices can significantly influence crypto demand, revealing the need for further research on investor behavior under stress.

Suggested Citation

  • Hodula, Martin, 2025. "Retail crypto investors when facing financial constraints: Evidence from energy shocks and the use and downloads of crypto trading apps," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:144:y:2025:i:c:s0140988325001628
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2025.108338
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988325001628
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eneco.2025.108338?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bitcoin; Cryptocurrencies; Energy prices; Households; Investor behavior;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • G51 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Household Savings, Borrowing, Debt, and Wealth

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:144:y:2025:i:c:s0140988325001628. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eneco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.