Impacts of Positive and Negative Comments of Social Media Users to Cryptocurrency

Abstract

Blockchain implementation brought several benefits to many areas. One of the usages of blockchain is in digital currencies. Digital currency (cryptocurrency) is a new era for the global financial system. Cryptocurrencies draw significant attention from researchers because of their advantages. Although there are several risks (e.g., speculation, 51% attack) related to cryptocurrency, billions of dollars are invested in them, because of their transparency, traceability, low transaction cost, and highly profitable potential. In December 2017, the most famous cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, has reached almost $20,000.00 per coin. Such short-term, high gain potential attracts many new small investors. However, speculative movements raise many questions related to the safety and privacy of investors, just to name a few. To understand public opinions about cryptocurrency and speculative movements to protect small investors financial interests, sentiment analysis can be done by using social media activities of individuals who are interested or investing in cryptocurrencies. It is also one of the essential steps in the analysis to understand the profiles of the users. Therefore, in this paper, we determine the attitudes of social network users by analyzing the positivity and negativity of the comments about six cryptocurrencies. Results show that the positivity is higher than negativity, and there exist relations between price changes and attitudes. However, relations vary according to currency types. The results and analysis, which are provided in this paper, help new investors and developers to obtain opinions of social network users who are interested or investing in cryptocurrency.