Intention to Pay Zakat on Digital Money Among Cryptocurrency Users in Malaysia

An advance of technology in today’s world had enhanced growth on the competitive advantages in many industries, and same goes happen to the financial industry. Recently, cryptocurrency is the newest invention of digital money and now had become a phenomenon, which spreads especially among the financial players. However, despite the attention earned by this new innovation, there are still a lot of questions and new understanding that need to be discovered regarding cryptocurrency. Undoubtedly, digital money such as cryptocurrency can become one of the sources of wealth. Wealth in Islam is prone to be zakatable. Consequently, this study investigated the intention to pay zakat on cryptocurrency among their users if this digital money is valid to be zakatable by the fatwa scholars. Specifically, this research studied the factors that influence the intention to pay zakat on cryptocurrency among the Muslim cryptocurrency users in Malaysia. The research applied the extended theory of planned behaviour (TPB) framework with perceived ease of use and Islamic religiosity became additional variables to address the issue in the questions. An online questionnaire was conducted using the purposive sampling method, with a total number of 78 Muslim respondents who were involved with cryptocurrency. The primary data were examined using the SPSS method. The findings from multiple linear regression analysis methods showed that attitude, subjective norms, and Islamic religiosity have a significant impact on the intention to pay zakat on cryptocurrency. Meanwhile, perceived behavioural control and perceive ease of use were found to be not significant with the intention to pay zakat on cryptocurrency. Overall, attitude such as positive feelings to the idea of paying zakat while subjective norms include family and peers’ influence and religious attachment towards Islamic teaching and conducts have a positive impact on the intention to pay zakat among cryptocurrency users in Malaysia. It is hoped that the findings of the study will help to create awareness of the importance to pay zakat on wealth among digital money users.