I have a project to prepare a study which focus on the relation between lack of democracy, and prohibiting bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general, but if I do such study, I will be faced by many problems, the first of these problems is that there is some countries that suffers from lack of democracy, but they are adopting crypto, like venezuela, and Russia. the reason behind that, I think, is that they are trying to avoid american and western sanctions, and secondly, they are trying to kill Dollar as the main currency in the World
there's some complexity to the issue. in venezuela, 2017 was a year where the government endlessly cracked down on miners.
miners were imprisoned for various crimes like "the legitimacy of capital, illicit enrichment, computer crimes, financing of terrorism, exchange fraud and damage to the national electricity system." they even raided small household miners.
in russia, the position of the state regarding bitcoin seems to change all the time. a few years ago, the prosecutor-general said it was completely illegal since it was a "money substitute." there's been no official legislation, and like china, officials have waffled between positive and negative statements. we'll see what the law looks like when it's eventually passed.
i think the more authoritarian governments initially react with an iron fist. over time, they realize how little control they have, and perhaps that cryptocurrency offers real value---particularly those countries that suffer from USA sanctions, as you pointed out.