Dominated, Not Excluded: Cryptocurrency and Financial Autonomy in Crisis Contexts
Dominated, Not Excluded: Cryptocurrency and Financial Autonomy in Crisis Contexts

Summary/Abstract: Why do individuals in crisis contexts adopt volatile cryptocurrencies despite significant risks? This paper argues that cryptocurrency adoption represents a response to financial domination rather than financial exclusion. Drawing on republican political theory, capability approaches, and practice theory, I distinguish domination, where institutions exercise arbitrary power over assets, from exclusion, where individuals lack access entirely. I develop a typology comprising three modes: survival, resistance, and identity. Comparative analysis of Argentina, Lebanon, China, India, the United States, and Germany demonstrates that adopters are typically over-banked rather than unbanked, exiting dominating institutions rather than seeking inclusion.

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