A new study has found that people who own cryptocurrency are more likely to have psychopathic tendencies.
Researchers at the University of Toronto and the University of Miami have published a paper that found digital asset holders are more likely to have so-called “dark” personality traits such as narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism.
“The results presented here suggest that cryptocurrency ownership is associated with several nonnormative and arguably maladaptive characteristics,” the report said, adding that “individuals who had purchased crypto were, on average, more likely to believe conspiracy theories, support extremist groups, and share populist sentiments.”
The study surveyed 2,001 American adults, finding that just under 30% of respondents said they own or have owned crypto. As well as “dark” personality traits, they tended to score higher on measures of need for chaos, paranoia, schizotypal attributes, dogmatism, victimhood mentality, and psychological reactance.
Some within the crypto space, such as crypto Youtuber and podcaster Luke Martin, were unsurprised by the study’s conclusion.
Writing on X he said: “Yeah you need to be a little crazy to hold coins through multiple 80% drawdowns before they rip 10x higher. This is a feature, not a bug.”
Analysts have said that a Trump, or even just a Republican, presidency, would be the only positive outcome for crypto owners.
Donald Trump, former President, and current Republican candidate, has recently launched his crypto platform, The DeFiant Ones. He also said during a gathering that “if you’re for crypto, you better vote for Trump.”
This comes shortly after findings that the cryptocurrency industry has donated almost half of the total direct corporate expenditures in the current election cycle, in the hopes of electing pro-crypto candidates.
Despite industry skepticism about Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’s position on crypto, senior campaign advisor for policy, Brian Nelson, recently said that Harris intends to support policies that protect and nurture emerging technologies. While not specifically mentioning crypto and digital assets, the current vice president also spoke about “cutting needless bureaucracy and red tape”.
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