IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2512.07840.html

An Examination of Bitcoin's Structural Shortcomings as Money: A Synthesis of Economic and Technical Critiques

Author

Listed:
  • Hamoon Soleimani

Abstract

Since its inception, Bitcoin has been positioned as a revolutionary alternative to national currencies, attracting immense public and academic interest. This paper presents a critical evaluation of this claim, suggesting that Bitcoin faces significant structural barriers to qualifying as money. It synthesizes critiques from two distinct schools of economic thought - Post-Keynesianism and the Austrian School - and validates their conclusions with rigorous technical analysis. From a Post-Keynesian perspective, it is argued that Bitcoin does not function as money because it is not a debt-based IOU and fails to exhibit the essential properties required for a stable monetary asset (Vianna, 2021). Concurrently, from an Austrian viewpoint, it is shown to be inconsistent with a strict interpretation of Mises's Regression Theorem, as it lacks prior non-monetary value and has not achieved the status of the most saleable commodity (Peniaz and Kavaliou, 2024). These theoretical arguments are then supported by an empirical analysis of Bitcoin's extreme volatility, hard-coded scalability limits, fragile market structure, and insecure long-term economic design. The paper concludes that Bitcoin is more accurately characterized as a novel speculative asset whose primary legacy may be the technological innovation it has spurred, rather than its viability as a monetary standard.

Suggested Citation

  • Hamoon Soleimani, 2025. "An Examination of Bitcoin's Structural Shortcomings as Money: A Synthesis of Economic and Technical Critiques," Papers 2512.07840, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2512.07840
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2512.07840
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mr. Nicolas End & Mr. Sampawende J Tapsoba & Mr. G. Terrier & Renaud Duplay, 2015. "Deflation and Public Finances: Evidence from the Historical Records," IMF Working Papers 2015/176, International Monetary Fund.
    2. Li Lin & Dimitrios P. Tsomocos & Alexandros P. Vardoulakis, 2019. "Debt deflation effects of monetary policy," Chapters, in: Financial Regulation and Stability, chapter 9, pages 245-258, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Goldbach, Stefan & Nitsch, Volker, 2024. "Cryptocurrencies and Capital Flows: Evidence from El Salvador’s Adoption of Bitcoin," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 149484, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    4. Conlon, Thomas & Corbet, Shaen & McGee, Richard J., 2021. "Inflation and cryptocurrencies revisited: A time-scale analysis," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    5. Yu Zhang & Mostafa Chegeni & Claudio Tessone, 2024. "Velocity, Holding Time and Lifespan of Cryptocurrency in Transactions," Lecture Notes in Operations Research, in: Stefanos Leonardos & Elise Alfieri & William J. Knottenbelt & Panos Pardalos (ed.), Mathematical Research for Blockchain Economy, chapter 0, pages 315-326, Springer.
    6. Cristina Chinazzo & Vahidin Jeleskovic, 2024. "Forecasting Bitcoin Volatility: A Comparative Analysis of Volatility Approaches," Papers 2401.02049, arXiv.org.
    7. Fernando E. Alvarez & David Argente & Diana Van Patten, 2022. "Are Cryptocurrencies Currencies? Bitcoin as Legal Tender in El Salvador," NBER Working Papers 29968, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Murray A. Rudd & Dennis Porter, 2025. "A Supply and Demand Framework for Bitcoin Price Forecasting," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-23, January.
    9. Bollerslev, Tim, 1986. "Generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 307-327, April.
    10. Nicol`o Vallarano & Claudio Tessone & Tiziano Squartini, 2020. "Bitcoin Transaction Networks: an overview of recent results," Papers 2005.00114, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2020.
    11. Nicolás Cachanosky, 2019. "Can Bitcoin become money? The monetary rule problem," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(4), pages 365-374, December.
    12. Yu Zhang & Mostafa Chegeni & Claudio Tessone, 2024. "Velocity, Holding Time and Lifespan of Cryptocurrency in Transactions," Papers 2406.16587, arXiv.org.
    13. Griffin Msefula & Tony Chieh-Tse Hou & Tina Lemesi, 2024. "Financial and market risks of bitcoin adoption as legal tender: evidence from El Salvador," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. B M, Lithin & chakraborty, Suman & iyer, Vishwanathan & M N, Nikhil & ledwani, Sanket, 2022. "Modeling asymmetric sovereign bond yield volatility with univariate GARCH models: Evidence from India," MPRA Paper 117067, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 05 Jan 2023.
    2. Meehan, David & Corbet, Shaen, 2025. "Comparing the resilience of socially responsible and SIN investment during the COVID-19 pandemic," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(PA).
    3. Conlon, Thomas & Corbet, Shaen & Hou, Yang (Greg) & Hu, Yang & Larkin, Charles & Oxley, Les, 2024. "Understanding sentiment shifts in central bank digital currencies," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    4. Hauzenberger, Niko & Huber, Florian & Klieber, Karin & Marcellino, Massimiliano, 2025. "Bayesian neural networks for macroeconomic analysis," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 249(PC).
    5. Beran, Jan & Feng, Yuanhua, 1999. "Local Polynomial Estimation with a FARIMA-GARCH Error Process," CoFE Discussion Papers 99/08, University of Konstanz, Center of Finance and Econometrics (CoFE).
    6. Corbet, Shaen & Larkin, Charles & McMullan, Caroline, 2020. "The impact of industrial incidents on stock market volatility," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    7. Cho, Guedae & Kim, MinKyoung & Koo, Won W., 2003. "Relative Agricultural Price Changes In Different Time Horizons," 2003 Annual meeting, July 27-30, Montreal, Canada 22249, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    8. Minot, Nicholas, 2014. "Food price volatility in sub-Saharan Africa: Has it really increased?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 45-56.
    9. Umar, Muhammad & Mirza, Nawazish & Rizvi, Syed Kumail Abbas & Furqan, Mehreen, 2023. "Asymmetric volatility structure of equity returns: Evidence from an emerging market," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 330-336.
    10. Shively, Gerald E., 2001. "Price thresholds, price volatility, and the private costs of investment in a developing country grain market," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 399-414, August.
    11. Lahmiri, Salim & Bekiros, Stelios, 2017. "Disturbances and complexity in volatility time series," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 38-42.
    12. Hao Chen & Qiulan Wan & Yurong Wang, 2014. "Refined Diebold-Mariano Test Methods for the Evaluation of Wind Power Forecasting Models," Energies, MDPI, vol. 7(7), pages 1-14, July.
    13. Tomanova, Lucie, 2013. "Exchange Rate Volatility and the Foreign Trade in CEEC," EY International Congress on Economics I (EYC2013), October 24-25, 2013, Ankara, Turkey 267, Ekonomik Yaklasim Association.
    14. Pieter Nel & Renee van Eyden, 2026. "From News to Noise: Does Media Sentiment Drive Stock Market Volatility?," Working Papers 202605, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    15. Chang, Chia-Lin, 2015. "Modelling a latent daily Tourism Financial Conditions Index," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 113-126.
    16. Jumah, Adusei & Kunst, Robert M., 2001. "The Effects of Exchange-Rate Exposures on Equity Asset Markets," Economics Series 94, Institute for Advanced Studies.
    17. Claudio Morana, 2010. "Heteroskedastic Factor Vector Autoregressive Estimation of Persistent and Non Persistent Processes Subject to Structural Breaks," ICER Working Papers - Applied Mathematics Series 36-2010, ICER - International Centre for Economic Research.
    18. Gruener Hans Peter & Hayo Bernd & Hefeker Carsten, 2009. "Unions, Wage Setting and Monetary Policy Uncertainty," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-25, October.
    19. Claudio Morana, 2014. "Factor Vector Autoregressive Estimation of Heteroskedastic Persistent and Non Persistent Processes Subject to Structural Breaks," Working Papers 273, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised May 2014.
    20. Hernández, Juan R., 2025. "Covered interest parity: A forecasting approach to estimate the neutral band," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2512.07840. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.