From Bretton Woods to Blockchain: The Long Crisis of Dollar Hegemony and the GENIUS Act

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International Relations (MA)

Rutten, Elias (2026)

From Bretton Woods to Blockchain: The Long Crisis of Dollar Hegemony and the GENIUS Act

Master thesis | International Relations (MA)

This thesis examines the historical evolution of the dollar-centred international monetary system as a series of contingent reconfigurations responding to persistent structural contradictions within global capitalism. Drawing on a neo-Gramscian framework, it conceptualizes dollar hegemony not as a static equilibrium or a purely market-driven outcome, but as a historically embedded structure sustained through shifting alignments of material capabilities, institutions, and social forces. Through a process-tracing and genealogical approach, the study reconstructs key phases in the development of the postwar monetary order, from Bretton Woods and the rise of offshore dollar markets to the Dollar–Wall Street Regime, financialization, and the global imbalances that culminated in the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath. Against this historical backdrop, the thesis analyses the contemporary rise of USbacked stablecoins and the passage of the GENIUS Act as a new phase in the...Show moreThis thesis examines the historical evolution of the dollar-centred international monetary system as a series of contingent reconfigurations responding to persistent structural contradictions within global capitalism. Drawing on a neo-Gramscian framework, it conceptualizes dollar hegemony not as a static equilibrium or a purely market-driven outcome, but as a historically embedded structure sustained through shifting alignments of material capabilities, institutions, and social forces. Through a process-tracing and genealogical approach, the study reconstructs key phases in the development of the postwar monetary order, from Bretton Woods and the rise of offshore dollar markets to the Dollar–Wall Street Regime, financialization, and the global imbalances that culminated in the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath. Against this historical backdrop, the thesis analyses the contemporary rise of USbacked stablecoins and the passage of the GENIUS Act as a new phase in the reorganization of dollar power. It argues that this legislation represents a state-mediated privatization of seigniorage under conditions of late-stage hegemonic constraint, reallocating core monetary functions to private digital infrastructures while preserving US structural power through regulatory authority and Treasury market integration. Rather than constituting a neutral technological innovation or a retreat of the state, the governance of stablecoins is shown to extend dollarization, generate global regulatory spillovers, and deepen hierarchical monetary relations, particularly for peripheral economies. By situating digital money within the historical-structural evolution of monetary governance, the study demonstrates how contemporary regulatory innovations function as adaptive responses to unresolved contradictions in the dollar system. In doing so, it contributes to debates on monetary hegemony, financial statecraft, and the political economy of digital finance by highlighting the enduring role of power, inequality, and institutional design in shaping the international monetary order.Show less

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From Bretton Woods to Blockchain: The Long Crisis of Dollar Hegemony and the GENIUS Act