A comparative study of Romanian students’ perceptions on cryptocurrencies before and after the 2022 cryptocurrency market cap collapse

Since the year of 2022 was marked by many significant and rapid changes on the cryptocurrencies market, this comparative study explores perceptions of Romanian students about cryptocurrencies before and after the market collapse. A qualitative approach has been used to understand attitudes towards cryptocurrencies in March 2022 (when prices of most cryptocurrencies were higher) and then the same study was conducted during August-November 2022 (when the prices of most cryptocurrencies were lower after a dropout in prices that lasted all throughout the summer). Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to compare the results. Our findings show that cryptocurrencies were associated with more negative words in the second wave of the study, but surprisingly, the willingness to invest in such assets did not change that much. However, the willingness to invest seemed to be influenced by how secure/trustworthy respondents perceived cryptocurrencies. Implications and future research suggestions are finally discussed.