In academic and political debates, we habitually fall back on a traditional economic understanding of money, in which money appears as a neutral tool, an aid that facilitates the exchange of goods on markets. Politics is supposed to guarantee the functionality of this tool, but otherwise stay out of its operation. This ideal of an apolitical money is based on a theory that wants to understand money as a representation of past creativity – a concept of money that, strictly speaking, has long been outdated. The ideal of an apolitical money thus becomes an ideology, a theoretical misunderstanding that obstructs democratic potential.