The effect of adaptation to financial technologies on crypto awareness in Turkey: The intermediate role of financial literacy levels

In today's world of economic wars, states and companies have given importance to the development of financial technology, and various financial technology companies and products have emerged. In developed countries, considering that the financial crises experienced are due to the low financial literacy levels of individuals, financial education plans have been made to increase the financial literacy levels of individuals. The development of financial technology, past crises, easy access to financial technology products and the emergence of new digital assets such as crypto money, the popular agenda of the last decade, have increased the importance of financial literacy. For this reason, conscious individuals are needed to make the right investment decisions using the financial technology that is desired to be further developed. Determining the attitudes of individuals towards new financial technology products is important in terms of applicable economic policies. In this study, crypto money, which is a new development in the field of finance and used as a payment method, investment tool; The mediating role of financial literacy levels in adaptation to financial technologies and individuals' awareness of crypto money was investigated. The study group of the study consisted of the age group of 18 years and older. A 51-item questionnaire was used to determine the opinions of individuals. The survey consisted of the first part where the personal characteristics of the participants were determined, the second part where their adaptation to financial technologies was measured, the third part where their awareness of crypto money was measured and the fourth part where their financial literacy levels were determined. In the regression equation established in the analysis, mediator variable analysis was performed to test whether the effect of the independent variables on the dependent variable was due to the interaction of the independent variables among themselves. As a result of the mediation analysis; According to multiple regression analysis, where the variables of adaptation to financial technologies and financial literacy levels are considered as independent variables and the crypto money awareness variable is considered as dependent variable; No significant relationship was found between financial literacy levels and cryptocurrency awareness variables, and a significant relationship was found between financial technology compliance and cryptocurrency awareness variables. We can state this situation in which the mediator variable does not have an intermediary effect due to the increasing standardized coefficient and the lack of a significant relationship between the mediator variable and the dependent variable.