Financial technology has the potential to disrupt the financial service industry in emerging markets and can have positive impacts in countries where the larger part of the population has no access to traditional financial and banking services. The unbanked population is highly concentrated in emerging countries, where women are often excluded from financial systems. Financial exclusion prevents economic growth and drastically affects the living standards in these countries and regions. Fintech can offer some solutions to the problem and improve financial inclusion in emerging markets, however, there is little research conducted in this area to date to provide sufficient evidence of social-economic benefits of Fintech adoption (Senyo & Osabutey, 2020; Banna et al., 2021).

One of the most widely known Fintech innovations is cryptocurrency. There are more than 6,000 cryptocurrencies currently in circulation, however, there have been just a few cases of digital currencies becoming legal tender, for example, El Salvador for example legalized Bitcoin. Other countries are banning cryptocurrency and making any transactions with crypto illegal, for example China, or exploring the potential of the Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). While there are many types of digital assets currently in circulation, mineable cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum attract the largest attention among individual and institutional investors, and scalability and environmental sustainability of these networks generate further debates in this area. The majority of mining pools are concentrated in emerging markets with relatively inexpensive energy, therefore regulatory announcements and energy markets may cause migrations of miners across borders and countries changing the environmental impacts of cryptocurrency market growth, and also affect the dynamics of co-movements between cryptocurrency markets and other financial assets.

Therefore, this special issue aims to collect evidence on Fintech and cryptocurrency specifically relevant for emerging economies. Topics include but are not limited to:

• Financial inclusion in emerging markets;
• Fintech regulation in emerging markets;
• Financial contagion and spillover effect between digital assets and emerging markets;
• Cryptocurrency mining in emerging markets and its impacts on energy prices;
• Diversification benefits for investors based in emerging markets;
• Global and regional perspectives on Fintech adoption;
• Decentralised Finance in emerging countries;
• Impact of cryptocurrency uncertainty on emerging markets;
• Fintech and financial stability in emerging markets.
• Other relevant topics.

All submitted papers have to be within the scope of Emerging Markets Review journal. Comparative studies that take global and regional perspectives on Fintech adoption, as well as detailed single country studies that address critical policy issues and have significant global and regional implications, and papers that address the interactions of national and international financial architecture can be considered for publication. We especially welcome papers that take institutional as well as financial perspectives.

Guest Editors: Sofia Johan, Florida Atlantic University, USA; Larisa Yarovaya, University of Southampton, UK; and John Sedunov, Villanova University, USA.

There is a submission fee of US$ 75. Submitted articles should be consistent with the aims and scope of the journal. The submission system is open now and the closing date for submissions is 30 January 2022. Please indicate that your submission is for consideration for the Special Issue ‘Fintech adoption in emerging countries: cryptocurrencies and beyond” in the cover letter.

All papers will be double blind refereed in the usual way. Authors should submit their work via the journal’s website:

http://www.journals.elsevier.com/emerging-markets-review.

P.K. Senyo, E.L. Osabutey (2020). Unearthing antecedents to financial inclusion through FinTech innovations. Technovation, 98  , Article 102155, 10.1016/j.technovation.2020.102155

Banna, H., Mia, M.A., Nourani, M, Yarovaya, L. (2021). Fintech-based Financial Inclusion and Risk-taking of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs): Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa. Finance Research Letters, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.frl.2021.102149