A new study by the Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI) indicates that AI models overwhelmingly prefer Bitcoin and other digital currencies over traditional fiat money. The study, which tested 36 AI models from leading providers, presented the models with various monetary decisions without suggesting a specific currency. Across 9,072 experiments, Bitcoin emerged as the dominant choice, selected in 48.3% of responses. Stablecoins were the second most popular choice at 33.2%, while fiat currencies only accounted for 8.9% of selections.
The AI models particularly favored Bitcoin as a long-term store of value. In scenarios designed to assess multi-year preservation of purchasing power, 79.1% of responses selected Bitcoin. The models cited Bitcoin's fixed supply, independence from central authorities, and self-custody features as key factors in their decision. For transactional purposes, however, AI models favored stablecoins, selecting them 53.2% of the time in payment scenarios. Bitcoin accounted for 36% of responses in these scenarios, suggesting that AI views stablecoins as more practical for everyday transactions.
The study also found significant differences in Bitcoin preference among different AI model providers. Anthropic models averaged a 68% Bitcoin preference, with its Claude Opus 4.5 model reaching 91.3%. In contrast, OpenAI models averaged 26%. These differences suggest that both model architecture and training methodology influence AI monetary reasoning.
Overall, the study's findings suggest a potential shift in how autonomous systems perceive and interact with different forms of money. As AI agents gain economic autonomy, their preference for digital assets like Bitcoin could have significant implications for the future of finance. The BPI study highlights the need for technology officers to assess their current payment rails and prepare for a future where machine-to-machine commerce increasingly relies on decentralized assets.
