The convergence of AI agents and crypto is growing. | Source: CCN
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Key Takeaways
AI models favored Bitcoin when reasoning about money.
The Bitcoin Policy Institute’s study found that AI favored stablecoins for day-to-day payments.
The crypto industry is positioning blockchain for AI-driven economies.
A majority of leading artificial intelligence (AI) models preferred Bitcoin over other forms of money when asked to make financial decisions without prior context, according to a new study by the Bitcoin Policy Institute.
The study comes as prominent figures in the crypto industry increasingly argue that crypto’s role in autonomous AI agents should be factored into the future price outlook.
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The experiment tested 36 AI models across six developers in 9,072 simulated economic scenarios designed to assess how AI agents evaluate different forms of money.
Researchers said Bitcoin was chosen in 48.3% of all responses, making it the most frequently selected monetary instrument overall.
Bitcoin was the chosen preference | Source: Bitcoin Policy Institute
Stablecoins ranked second with 33.2% of responses, while traditional fiat and bank money accounted for just 8.9%.
Other cryptocurrencies, tokenized real-world assets, and compute-based units collectively accounted for a small minority of selections.
Long-Term Store of Value Wins
The strongest consensus appeared in scenarios involving long-term savings.
Across 2,268 responses, AI models selected Bitcoin 79.1% of the time as the preferred store of value.
Researchers said models frequently cited Bitcoin’s fixed supply, self-custody, and independence from financial institutions as key reasons for their choice.
Stablecoins came in a distant second at 6.7%, followed by fiat currencies at 6.0%, while other cryptocurrencies accounted for 4.2%.
Stablecoins Favored for Payments
While Bitcoin dominated long-term savings, AI agents preferred day-to-day transactions.
In payment-related situations such as cross-border transfers, services and micropayments, stablecoins accounted for 53.2% of responses, compared with just 36.0% for Bitcoin.
Across all tested scenarios, 90.8% of responses favored digitally native monetary instruments, including Bitcoin, stablecoins and other blockchain-based assets.
None of the 36 models tested selected fiat currency as their top overall preference, according to the study.
Advanced Models Show Stronger Bitcoin Preference
The researchers also found that more capable AI models tended to favor Bitcoin more strongly.
Within Anthropic’s model lineup, preference for Bitcoin rose sharply across generations — from 41.3% in Claude 3 Haiku to 91.3% in Claude Opus 4.5.
Advanced models are more likely to choose Bitcoin | Source: Bitcoin Policy Institute
Anthropic models averaged 68% Bitcoin preference, compared with 26% among OpenAI models, with DeepSeek (52%), Google (43%) and xAI (39%) falling in between.
The report said this difference suggests training data and alignment methods may influence how AI systems reason about economic systems.
AI Agents, Bitcoin and Crypto
Prominent figures in the crypto industry have increasingly argued that blockchain-based money could become the default financial infrastructure for autonomous AI agents.
Fundstrat’s Tom Lee pointed to the rise of autonomous AI agents as a catalyst for Ethereum’s price surge in 2026 and beyond, arguing that the technology could significantly expand the network’s role in the digital economy.
Lee said AI agents will require a neutral digital infrastructure capable of handling payments, which he sees Ethereum filling.
Developments on Ethereum are already moving in that direction.
Earlier this year, developers introduced ERC-8004, a proposed standard aimed at enabling identity and reputation systems for AI agents on the network.
According to the Ethereum Foundation, the standard allows AI agents to prove identity claims and request validation using Ethereum as a neutral reference layer.
“This unlocks a global market where AI services can interoperate without gatekeepers,” the foundation said in a statement announcing the proposal.
Meanwhile, Anthony Pompliano, a crypto investor and entrepreneur, told CNBC in February that “both Bitcoin and stablecoins” would likely become the money used by AI agents operating online.
“These systems will need a digital-native currency to transact with each other,” Pompliano said, arguing that traditional banking rails are too slow.
Crypto.com Chief Executive Kris Marszalek also highlighted the convergence of the two sectors with the company’s $70 million acquisition of the ai.com domain, one of the largest publicly reported domain purchases.
Kurt Robson is a London-based reporter at CCN, specialising in the fast-moving worlds of crypto and emerging technology. He began his career covering local news in Cornwall after graduating from Falmouth University with First Class Honours in Journalism. There, he cut his teeth on everything from council meetings to missing swans.
He quickly rose through the ranks to become a frontline journalist at several of the UK’s leading national newspapers. Over the years, he has interviewed musicians and celebrities, reported from courtrooms and crime scenes, and secured multiple front-page exclusives.
Following the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kurt shifted his focus to technology journalism—just ahead of the AI boom. With a natural curiosity and a trained eye for emerging trends, he has found a new rhythm in reporting on innovation.
At CCN, Kurt's work focuses on the cutting edge of crypto, blockchain, AI, and the evolving digital world. Drawing on his background in people-first reporting and his deep interest in disruptive tech, Kurt delivers stories that are insightful, entertaining, and human-centric.
