By
Boecyàn Bourgade
Africa-Press – Eritrea. Summary: Finance has become the new frontline of war. In 2022, sanctions froze over $300 billion of Russian central bank reserves and imposed more than 11,000 restrictions in a single year—the largest financial offensive in modern history. Balance sheets now matter as much as battlefields.
This article argues that modern conflict has turned finance from neutral infrastructure into a weapon of power, exposing both fragility and inequality. Three dynamics stand out:
1. The Financial Battlefield: sanctions, energy flows, and collapsing currencies show that payment systems and reserves are as strategic as tanks and pipelines.
2. What Is Left to Finance: Gold purchases reached 1,000 tonnes in 2022, while crypto donations to Ukraine exceeded $200 million—proof that both safe havens and digital assets are lifelines, though not equally accessible.
3. The Future of Finance: the dollar’s share of reserves has dropped to 60%, CBDCs are being explored by 130+ countries, and trust itself has become the scarcest asset.
The conclusion is stark: finance is no longer just a market system. It is a battlefield, a weapon, and a potential foundation for stability. The future of global order may depend on how it is governed.
Finance on the Front Line
In today’s wars, balance sheets are as decisive as battlefields. In 2022, sanctions froze over $300 billion of Russia’s central bank reserves—the largest financial seizure in modern history. More than 11,000 sanctions were imposed in a single year, weaponizing the dollar system at an unprecedented scale. SWIFT expulsions, asset freezes, and currency collapses now sit alongside tanks and missiles as instruments of war.
Finance, once described as the neutral bloodstream of global markets, has become a strategic weapon. Payment networks can be cut overnight. ETFs tied to energy markets swing with every escalation. Oil and gas revenues, sovereign debt, and even safe havens like gold and Treasuries have been drawn into the theater of conflict.
The question is no longer whether wars reshape finance—they already do. The question is how far this financial militarization will extend and whether the global system will fracture into rival blocks or adapt with new rules of governance.
The Financial Battlefield
Modern wars are waged as much in spreadsheets as in trenches. The financial theater has become a frontline where reserves, markets, and currencies are weaponized with unprecedented speed and scale.
Sanctions as weapons: The freezing of $300 billion in Russia’s central bank reserves marked a historic precedent—proof that sovereign assets are no longer untouchable. More than 11,000 sanctions were rolled out in less than a year, a financial shock larger than any military blockade in history. Finance itself has been mobilized as a weapon of war.
Energy and finance entangled: Energy flows now move at the pace of geopolitics. Oil and gas revenues account for more than 40% of Russia’s federal budget, turning every futures contract into a proxy for conflict. ETFs tied to energy and defense surge or collapse with each battlefield development, while sovereign payments are no longer commercial—they are bargaining chips in global power struggles.
Crisis of currencies: In conflict zones, local currencies collapse with devastating speed. The Ukrainian hryvnia lost nearly 30% of its value in 2022, while the Russian ruble swung from free fall to artificial stabilization under capital controls. Populations flee to dollars, euros, or, increasingly, crypto stablecoins as lifelines. War accelerates a structural shift: from national currencies to global alternatives.
Wars expose the fragility of the financial system. Finance is no longer “neutral infrastructure”—it is an extension of national security. The vaults, markets, and networks that once underpinned stability now serve as weapons in geopolitical confrontation.
Figure 1: Financial measures at Scale (2022): around $300bn central bank reserves frozen; around 11,000 sanctions issued (Sources: US Treasury/ OFAC; IMF; press reports)
What Is Left to Finance?
When finance itself becomes a weapon, the question shifts from growth to survival. Where can wealth still find refuge when reserves can be frozen and payment networks severed overnight?
Safe havens under pressure: Gold remains the ultimate fallback — central banks added more than 1,000 tonnes in 2022, the largest accumulation since records began, much of it by countries hedging against sanctions risk. US Treasuries still anchor global reserves, but even their neutrality is questioned after the precedent of Russian assets being immobilised. Switzerland, once synonymous with financial neutrality, has aligned with EU sanctions, forcing investors to rethink what “safe” truly means.
Figure 2: Central bank net gold purchases by year (2018-2023), showing record buying in 2022-2023 (Source: World Gold Council)
Crypto and digital assets: In Ukraine, more than $200 million in crypto donations flowed to support defence and humanitarian aid, proving digital assets can mobilise capital faster than traditional channels. For ordinary citizens, stablecoins like USDT and USDC have provided escape routes from collapsing local currencies. Yet for regulators, the same tools raise alarms: potential conduits for sanctions evasion and illicit finance. Digital assets embody the duality of wartime finance —lifeline and loophole at once.
Figure 3: Crypto Donations to Ukraine, 2022-2023 (approx., USD millions) (Sources:
Chainalysis; public fundraising appeals)
Inequality of resilience: Wealthy actors can diversify portfolios, hedge exposures, or relocate assets offshore. Ordinary citizens, by contrast, face the blunt edge of war finance: devalued currencies, frozen accounts, and the destruction of life savings. The resilience of finance is not evenly distributed; it mirrors inequality itself.
Finance in wartime no longer allocates capital to growth. It serves three functions only: preservation, escape, and survival.
The Future of Finance in an Age of Conflict
Wars are not just disrupting finance—they are accelerating its fragmentation. The architecture of global markets is shifting from a unipolar system anchored in the dollar to a contested landscape where multiple currencies, platforms, and technologies compete for dominance.
Multipolar currencies: The US dollar still accounts for nearly 60% of global foreign-exchange reserves (IMF, 2023), but its share has fallen from over 70% two decades ago. China is pushing the yuan in energy and commodity trade settlements, with Russia and several BRICS partners already transacting outside the dollar system. Regional blocs from ASEAN to the African Union are experimenting with cross-border payment systems that bypass SWIFT, reshaping the geopolitics of reserves and settlements.
Figure 4: US dollar share of global FX reserves, 2000-2023 (illustrative trend)
(Source: IMF COFER)
Weaponisation of trust: If finance can be frozen, sanctioned, or repurposed overnight, then neutrality itself becomes the rarest asset. Institutions able to credibly claim impartiality — whether sovereign wealth funds, central banks, or even new multilateral mechanisms — could find renewed strategic relevance. Trust will not just be a by-product of finance; it will be its core competitive advantage.
Digital finance at the frontline: Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) are moving from theory to deployment, with more than 130 countries now exploring them. In wartime, CBDCs could be used to secure payment rails within blocs, or conversely, to exert surveillance and control. Stablecoins already serve as escape hatches for civilians in conflict zones, while tokenised assets — from carbon credits to energy ETFs — are becoming new arenas of contestation.
The same tools that promise resilience cans also deepen fragmentation.
Figure 5: Countries exploring central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), 2016-2023
(Sources: IMF; BIS CBDC Tracker)
The risk is a future of parallel financial systems: a Western-led dollar bloc, a China-led yuan bloc, and a decentralised digital frontier. The opportunity is to build new governance models before fragmentation hardens into permanent division — ensuring that finance remains a foundation of global stability rather than a perpetual weapon of war.
Finance as a Weapon, Finance as a Future
The wars of this century have proved that finance is no longer the backdrop to conflict. It is one of its decisive instruments. Sanctions now cut deeper than embargoes, reserves can be frozen overnight, and payment systems have joined armies and arsenals as tools of power.
What remains is a stark choice:
Allow finance to fracture into rival blocs, hardening global division.
Or reimagine governance so that finance can once again underpins stability, even in conflict.
Finance has always been about power. In wartime, it reveals its dual nature: weapon and lifeline. The stakes are not just markets, but the architecture of global order itself. The future will depend on whether finance remains a tool of coercion — or becomes the foundation of a new stability.
Policy Takeaways
Invest in Resilient Infrastructure: Governments and central banks must strengthen payment systems, clearinghouses, and cross-border settlement frameworks to withstand sanctions, cyberattacks, and conflict-driven shocks.
Coordinate Sanctions and Oversight: Create joint monitoring hubs linking financial intelligence units (FIUs), multilateral development banks, and cybercrime teams to track enforcement and limit sanctions leakage.
Govern Digital Assets in Conflict: Establish global standards for CBDCs, stablecoins, and tokenised assets to prevent fragmentation, ensure humanitarian access, and close loopholes exploited during wars.
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