WHICH CODE IS CURRENCY? A LAYERED MODEL OF THE MONEY-PROSPECTS OF BITCOIN, ALTCOINS, STABLECOINS AND CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCIES

Abstract

Purpose – The money-prospects of cryptocurrencies remain hotly debated, largely indecisive and, with respect to their different genres, only partially attempted. This study develops and applies a conceptual model to assess the money-prospects of cryptocurrencies as a whole and across Bitcoin, altcoins, stablecoins and, as a limiting case, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), in conventional as well as Sharīʿah terms, and derives testable propositions for empirical research. Design/methodology/approach – A layered ontology of money, which joins substrate (māl), validity (taqawwum), social constitution (iṣṭilāḥ), function (taʿāmul), persistence (miʿyār) and purpose (maqāṣid), is operationalised into a rubric-based assessment model. Seven genre types are rated for 2021 and 2026 on evidence published, including peer-reviewed studies, statutes, central bank reports and collective fatāwá, and the ratings are subjected to sensitivity analysis. Findings – Cryptocurrency does not form a single monetary kind. Unanchored tokens are property with network-level convention; they are restrained first by contested validity and then by weak circulation and stability. Fiat-backed stablecoins show the most complete private profile, though their moneyness is borrowed from the currency they represent, while CBDCs are state money in a new technical form constraint by weak adoption and acceptance. Across genres, moneyness declines as decentralisation rises. Originality/value – The study offers the first layer-wise and genre-specific assessment of money-prospects that brings juristic and conventional criteria together, documents how the evidence of 2022–2026 moved each genre, and sets out seven propositions for empirical testing.