Why Bitcoin Is Freedom Money

Issue Date October 2025
Volume 36
Issue 4
Page Numbers 20–35
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Authoritarian governments worldwide are increasingly using financial repression to disable their challengers. By surveilling and freezing bank accounts, they can stop democratic opposition in its tracks. At the same time, human-rights groups from Nigeria to Russia to Hong Kong are turning to Bitcoin — a censorship-resistant digital currency that can be used without tying one’s transactions to one’s personal information — to receive donations, run payroll, and keep their operations going, even if dictators want them to stop.

About the Author

Alex Gladstein is chief strategy officer at the Human Rights Foundation and the author of Check Your Financial Privilege and Hidden Repression.

View all work by Alex Gladstein

Image Credit: OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images