Technological progression in the information technology (IT) field and its exponential growth has fostered many things, from the creation of new products and services, innovation, to outright disruption from the status quo. This is particularly true for finance and more so with the increasing interest in Fintech. But what has been sweeping the headlines since late 2017 is the emergence of blockchain technologies such as Bitcoin that struck an all-time high of over $19,783 from the advent of early institutional interest. Its plentiful cryptocurrency subordinates that follow behind with their own value proposition also rode the crypto-rally. Bitcoin is a digital currency that is recorded on a distributed and immutable ledger system on a decentralized network with no intermediary and is cryptographically secured on blockchain. A trust less, permission less, peer to peer system developed by a person or group with the pseudonym ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’. Since 2008 and Bitcoin’s inception, more and more use cases are being realized for Bitcoin, in addition to other blockchain digital assets. Numerous countries have facilitated the growth of this technology and furthermore have their central banks look into it. Though we are more concerned with Malaysia. With central bank of Malaysia, that is the Bank Negara Malaysia’s stance of not accepting cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin as a legal tender, it is still permitted with the recent guidelines for anti-money laundering and ‘know your customer’requirements for exchanges who must adhere to being reporting institutions. Though, despite the regulatory matters, this paper is more concerned on the behavioral intention to use and the factors that influencing the use of Bitcoin by the Malaysian public.

Although there are some recent studies on the intention and acceptance of Bitcoin (Abraham et al., 2019; Gazali et al., 2018; Gunawan & Novendra, 2017; Pakrou & Amir, 2016), yet there is limited evidence from Malaysia. Therefore, this study should play an important role in determining the factors that would drive the current behavioral intention to use Bitcoin, and as the Bank Negara Malaysia is indicating a positive stance through drafting regulatory guidelines, such research would be helpful for regulatory bodies to understand the status quo of Bitcoin acceptance with users and non-users. From a managerial point of view, this research can help express the prerequisites for successful Bitcoin acceptance in various business sectors by gaining new knowledge and the behavioral intention of the existing users, potential users, and non-users of Bitcoin. And lastly, from an academic perspective, this study would contribute to the literature on the relationship between the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model, and the realization of the digital currency. This comes from the limited academic work involved in the factors that drive consumers to adopt digital currency such as Bitcoin. While technology acceptance models have been used to better understand the actual and intended use of a new technology such as online and mobile platforms, this research will extend the scope and UTAUT model to the context of Bitcoin, which is not only an enduser technology like in other studies but also an investment instrument for investors.