Why Crypto Exists

“Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”

Argentina, December 2001. Bank deposits are frozen. Withdrawal limit: $250 per week. Months later, dollar savings are forcibly converted to pesos by decree — at an exchange rate chosen not by the market. Real loss: between 50% and 65% of deposit value. $18 billion evaporated from the system. The poverty rate climbs to 66%.

Cyprus, March 2013. Inside the Eurozone — the supposedly most stable economic bloc in the world — a 47.5% haircut is imposed on deposits exceeding €100,000 to recapitalize the banks. A 10-day banking shutdown. Withdrawal limit after reopening: €300 per day.

Lebanon, since 2019. The mechanism sustaining the banking system is described by the World Bank as a “Ponzi scheme on a national scale.” Haircuts of 60% to 90% on deposits. The Lebanese pound loses 98% of its value. $60 billion of citizens’ money, gone. Poverty jumps from 25% to 74% in two years.

Venezuela, 2019. Official inflation: 9,585%. Savings in bolívares retain approximately 1% of their purchasing power by year’s end. The other 99% vanishes. No decree, no confiscation, no banking shutdown. Just monetary policy prioritizing the survival of the system over the preservation of savings.

These are not accidents. They are not system failures. They are the system working exactly as designed. When it works, it generates prosperity for many. When it needs to survive, the cost is shared by everyone.

Nobody is a villain in this equation. Governments try to maintain order. Central banks try to prevent collapse. Everyone tries to keep going. But the game is asymmetric: those who make the decisions are not those who absorb the losses.

Maybe you think this only happens in fragile economies. That your bank, your country, your currency are different.

Greece is a member of the European Union. So is Cyprus. Greek capital controls lasted four years — until September 2019. Inside the Eurozone. With all the regulatory protections that supposedly exist.

In Russia, in 2024, a 95% exit tax is imposed on the assets of foreign investors who want to divest. You buy an asset worth 100. You can leave with 5.

In Ukraine, by December 2025, 14% of the housing stock is damaged or destroyed. Over 3 million homes affected. Direct damages estimated at $195.1 billion. ATMs stopped working on the first day of the invasion.

Dubai, March 2026. Until weeks ago, the quintessential safe haven for global capital. Drones strike Creek Harbour. Global financial institutions evacuate staff. The Strait of Hormuz — through which 20% of the world’s oil transits — under threat of closure.

Geographic diversification, the most repeated financial advice of the 20th century, has a limit nobody mentions: it assumes there will always be a safe place. In 2026, that assumption is no longer obvious.

It doesn’t always take a decree. Sometimes, wealth evaporates slowly.

Inflation is a wealth transfer. From those who save to those who owe. It is not a malicious act — it is a mechanical consequence of how monetary policy works. When a state needs financing and revenue falls short, printing money dilutes the value of what already exists. It requires no parliamentary approval. It has no start date and no end date. It simply happens, month after month, year after year.

In Hungary, in 1946, prices doubled every 15 hours. In Zimbabwe, in 2008, every 24 hours. In Germany, in 1923, every 3.7 days.

You think that’s history. That it can’t happen today.

Turkey, 2025: double-digit inflation. Argentina, 2025: triple-digit inflation. Mortgage credit in Argentina went from 5% of GDP in 2001 to 0.2% in 2024. Entire generations unable to access housing. Not for lack of effort. Because of the accumulated effect of decades of monetary policy that prioritizes the survival of the system over the preservation of savings.

Nobody decided those families didn’t deserve a home. Nobody signed a decree against them. The system simply did what systems do: protect itself.

Behind every percentage there is someone who did everything right.

LDV is a Ukrainian refugee. He received his salary in Bitcoin. When he had to flee, he crossed the border into Poland carrying all his savings: a USB drive and a recovery seed written on paper. His neighbors couldn’t get money from the ATM. He was able to exchange fractions of Bitcoin for Polish zlotys to eat, to sleep, to keep going.

In Jordan, the World Food Programme distributes aid to 100,000 Syrian refugees using Ethereum. No banking intermediaries. No commissions siphoned along the way. $3.5 million saved — money that reaches the people who need it.

In Afghanistan, after the fall of Kabul, HesabPay reaches 51,000 families using Algorand. 29% lower distribution costs. While banks imposed $200 weekly withdrawal limits, families with access to stablecoins could receive direct aid.

When the earthquake struck Turkey and Syria in 2023, $11 million in crypto was raised in 48 hours. Banks were still processing transfers. Blockchain networks had already delivered the money.

Crypto didn’t save their homes. It didn’t stop the bombs. It didn’t reverse inflation. But it allowed them to carry the fruit of their labor when everything else failed.

We’re not going to tell you crypto is the answer. Because we don’t know. Nobody does.

Crypto has its own problems. Its own scams. Its own inequalities. And if you want to know every risk before taking a single step, we’ve written an entire page about that: maybe crypto is not for you.

What we do know is that crypto asks a question the traditional financial system never poses:

What if your money didn’t have to depend on the stability of a single government?

What if your savings could cross a border without asking permission?

What if owning something truly meant owning it — not having an access right that someone can revoke when the system needs it?

We’re not going to offer you easy answers. Only difficult questions that will lead you down a different path.

Maybe all you have is a feeling. The feeling that something doesn’t work right, but you can’t put it into words. That’s okay. That intuition is already a first step.

There is no irreversible path here. You can learn and decide this isn’t for you. You can explore and turn back. You can read everything and do nothing. All of that is fine.

The only irreversible thing is learning itself. Once you understand how money works, you can’t un-understand it. Once you see the mechanisms, you can’t unsee them. And that isn’t a commitment to crypto — it’s a commitment to yourself.