The PROMISE of CRYPTO PROTOTYPE: PLATFORM POWER & CENTRALIZED CRYPTO EXCHANGE PLATFORMS

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dc.contributor.advisorShepherd, Tamara
dc.contributor.authorMcLean, Jenny
dc.contributor.committeememberKarimi, Ali
dc.contributor.committeememberHogan, Mél
dc.contributor.committeememberElliott, Charlene
dc.date2025-02
dc.date.accessioned2024-12-16T20:19:13Z
dc.date.available2024-12-16T20:19:13Z
dc.date.issued2024-12-11
dc.description.abstractCentralized crypto exchange (CEX) platforms offer to eliminate the technical barriers to crypto adoption. But how has an industry ostensibly committed to decentralization come to rely on such centralized entities? The literature analyzing CEX platforms through a political economy lens is sparse, and as crypto grows and becomes more interconnected with the traditional finance system, deeper understanding is required. This study explores how centralized CEX platforms (Binance, FTX, and Coinbase) mediate the promises of crypto through the financialization and regulatory logics of platform power, in the context of the entangled technology and venture capital industries. I construct a theoretical framework of platform power framework that captures a set of analytical perspectives on platforms, and I employ a modified stack economization model as a tool to enable a platform power political economic analysis. My findings demonstrate that CEX platforms extract and transform the original visions for crypto to produce the current promise of crypto prototype. They eclipse the neoclassical conception of the market and instead constitute stacked opportunities for financialization, where CEX platform power manifests in power asymmetries premised upon recentralization and extraction. In so doing, CEXs leverage neoliberal discursive strategies in their policy advocacy. Based on these findings, I argue that CEX platforms deploy the promise of crypto prototype to accumulate, benefit from, and perpetuate platform power.
dc.identifier.citationMcLean, J. (2024). The promise of crypto prototype: platform power & centralized crypto exchange platforms (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1880/120195
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisher.facultyGraduate Studies
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Calgary
dc.rightsUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.
dc.subjectcrypto
dc.subjectcentralized crypto exchange platform
dc.subjectplatform power
dc.subjectcritical political economy
dc.subjectideology
dc.subjectstack economization
dc.subjectfinancialization
dc.subjectregulation
dc.subject.classificationMass Communications
dc.titleThe PROMISE of CRYPTO PROTOTYPE: PLATFORM POWER & CENTRALIZED CRYPTO EXCHANGE PLATFORMS
dc.typemaster thesis
thesis.degree.disciplineArt
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Calgary
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Arts (MA)
ucalgary.thesis.accesssetbystudentI do not require a thesis withhold – my thesis will have open access and can be viewed and downloaded publicly as soon as possible.
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