The New Crypto Cold War: How US, China, and Russia Are Fighting for Blockchain Power

A crypto Cold War is underway as the United States, China, and Russia have competing visions about the future of crypto-economic systems. Washington encourages private crypto markets and dollar-backed stablecoins as a way to extend American financial reach. Beijing favors state-led payment systems and carefully regulated blockchain infrastructure.

Moscow views mining, digital assets, and the digital ruble as strategic assets to soften the impact of economic isolation. The prize consists of influence over payment rails, technical standards, liquidity, transaction data, energy consumption, and the digital currencies used in global trade.

What Is the Crypto Cold War?

The crypto Cold War is a contest between political and economic powers over the future of value exchange and financial infrastructure.

Public blockchains enable the disintermediation of correspondent banking. Stablecoins offer instantaneous liquidity in the form of programmable central bank money. Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) seek to create state-backed payment systems. Mining transforms electricity and silicon into global units of account.

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