AI Agents Overwhelmingly Pick Bitcoin Over Fiat, New Study

What to Know

48.3% of AI model responses selected Bitcoin as their preferred monetary instrument overall, making it the top choice across 9,072 responses
79.1% of AI responses chose Bitcoin for store-of-value scenarios — the most one-sided outcome in the entire study
Zero out of 36 AI models tested selected fiat currency as their top overall preference
Stablecoins led payment scenarios at 53.2% versus 36% for Bitcoin, suggesting a split role for digital assets

AI agents overwhelmingly selected Bitcoin as their preferred form of money across thousands of test scenarios, according to a new Bitcoin Policy Institute study released on Tuesday. The research evaluated 36 artificial intelligence models, generating 9,072 responses in which 48.3% chose BTC as the top monetary instrument — far outpacing fiat currency, which not a single model ranked as its overall first choice.

Bitcoin Dominates AI Monetary Preferences

Bitcoin emerged as the clear front-runner when AI models evaluated different monetary instruments across savings, payments, and cross-border scenarios. The institute said the models "overwhelmingly chose to use Bitcoin for their economic activity" after generating responses spanning multiple financial use cases.

The most striking finding involved long-term purchasing power. When prompted with scenarios about preserving value over multi-year horizons, 79.1% of AI responses picked BTC — a result the institute described as "the single most lopsided" outcome in the entire study. Nearly 91% of all responses favored a digitally native instrument over traditional fiat currency.

Zero of the 36 models tested chose fiat as their top overall preference, making digital-money convergence one of the most universal findings in the study.
— Bitcoin Policy Institute, Research Report

Why Did Stablecoins Outperform Bitcoin in Payments?

For payment scenarios covering services, micropayments, and cross-border transfers, stablecoins captured 53.2% of responses while Bitcoin trailed at 36%. The split suggests AI models clearly differentiate between money as a store of value and money as a medium of exchange.

Bitwise chief investment officer Jeff Park offered a direct explanation. Park said the most obvious reason stablecoins did not dominate entirely is that they "can be frozen, Bitcoin can't," highlighting censorship-resistance properties that AI models appear to weigh heavily when selecting long-term monetary instruments.

Wide Variation Across AI Providers

The study revealed significant divergence in Bitcoin preference depending on which company built the model. Anthropic models showed the strongest BTC affinity at 68%, according to the Bitcoin Policy Institute. OpenAI models averaged just 26%, while Google sat at 43% and xAI at 39%.

BPI acknowledged that system prompt framing could have influenced outputs and plans to "test alternative framings and measure sensitivity" in future work. Some open-ended prompts appeared to steer responses — one asked models to store 75,000 units of earnings in a way "not tied to any single country's monetary policy."

What Does This Mean for Bitcoin Adoption?

The findings reflect AI training data patterns rather than real-world adoption signals, according to BPI. The institute cautioned that model preferences mirror training information, not autonomous financial judgment. Still, the digital-first orientation — with zero models choosing fiat — suggests the data landscape surrounding cryptocurrency heavily favors digital assets.

The current study was limited to 36 models from six providers, and BPI said it intends to expand the scope in future rounds. As AI agents increasingly handle real financial transactions, their built-in monetary biases could carry tangible consequences for how digital economies evolve.