What Drives Their Commitment?Social Identity and Community Development in Blockchain Cryptocurrency technologies have generated a vast network comprising millions of users. A notable feature of crypto environments is the development of dynamic communities centered around specific projects, where supporters congregate on interactive digital platforms and exhibit a strong sense of collective identity. Despite the pseudonymous and 'trustless' characteristics of crypto, it has emerged as a tool for forming social connections that appear to be remarkably durable. Nevertheless, the elements influencing the creation of social bonds in widely dispersed, pseudonymous crypto environments, characterized by minimal face-to-face interaction, have remained largely unexamined until now. Employing a mixed-method approach, this study investigates the factors that contribute to community development within the crypto space.

As the first step, we conduct 26 semi-structured qualitative interviews to explore the elements that may affect group formation in these communities. In the second phase, we design a quantitative survey based on insights from these interviews to evaluate the impact of the identified factors on community formation, utilizing a sample of 111 cryptocurrency users. Group formation is defined using an identity fusion scale, which gauges the tendency of individuals to integrate their self-concept with that of the social group they are part of. The findings indicate that social rewards, positive future expectations, and the level of participant investment significantly predict identity fusion with crypto communities. This study enhances the understanding of social bonding dynamics in pseudonymous crypto environments.