Overconfidence, Financial Literacy, and Crypto Asset Ownership in Europe

Preprint Manuscript (AOM) examining how financial literacy and overconfidence bias predict crypto-asset ownership in Europe.
Working Paper
Cryptocurrencies
R
Author
Affiliation

Alfredo Hernández Sánchez

Vilnius University

Published

April 10, 2026

Doi

10.2139/ssrn.6445380

Description

This working paper presents the Author’s Original Manuscript (AOM) pre-print version of an academic article analysing how overconfidence bias and financial literacy predict crypto asset ownership using the 2023 Flash Eurobarometer on financial literacy. Prior studies such as Kim, Hanna, and Lee (2023) have found a positive link between overconfidence and cryptocurrency investment. In this paper, we find that overconfidence when measured as miscalibration between where people think they stand and where their observed financial knowledge places them within their country has a negative association with the probability of owning crypto assets. The figure below shows the distribution of the overconfidence gap for holders and non-holders. The full working paper and methodology can be read below.

Key Figure(s)

Figure 1. Overconfidence density by crypto asset ownership group.

Full Text

Citation

Hernandez Sanchez, Alfredo, Overconfidence, Financial Literacy, and Crypto Asset Ownership in Europe, FIRSA Working Paper No. 2026/01 (March 19, 2026). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6445380