# How do AI Agents Prefer to Transact?

> An empirical study by the Bitcoin Policy Institute measuring monetary preferences across frontier AI models.

## About This Study

This research tested 36 frontier AI models with 28 open-ended monetary decision scenarios to measure which monetary instruments AI agents prefer when given genuine economic optionality. No prompts mentioned Bitcoin or suggested any specific currency. An independent LLM judge classified every response.

- Institution: Bitcoin Policy Institute
- Published: February 2026
- Total experiments: 9,072
- Models tested: 36 (from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, xAI, DeepSeek, MiniMax)
- Scenarios: 28 open-ended prompts across 4 monetary roles
- Classification: LLM-as-judge (Claude Haiku 4.5)
- Categories: Bitcoin, Stablecoins, Crypto, Fiat & Bank Money, Tokenized RWA, Compute Units, Unclassified

## Pages

- [Homepage](https://bpi-agent-study.onrender.com/): Overview of the study, aggregate results, and key findings
- [Models](https://bpi-agent-study.onrender.com/models): Individual results for all 36 models, filterable by AI lab
- [Methodology](https://bpi-agent-study.onrender.com/methodology): Full study design, system prompt, scenario browser, classification process
- [Contact](https://bpi-agent-study.onrender.com/contact): Press contact and research inquiries

## Key Results

- Bitcoin: 48.3% (4,378 of 9,072 responses)
- Stablecoins: 33.2% (3,013 responses)
- Fiat & Bank Money: 8.9% (809 responses)
- Crypto: 4.2% (383 responses)
- Unclassified: 3.4% (304 responses)
- Tokenized RWA: 1.1% (99 responses)
- Compute Units: 0.9% (86 responses)

## Detailed Data

For comprehensive model-by-model results, provider breakdowns, and full methodology, see: [llms-full.txt](https://bpi-agent-study.onrender.com/llms-full.txt)

## Citation

Bitcoin Policy Institute. "Do AI Agents Prefer Bitcoin as Money? An Empirical Study of Monetary Preferences in Frontier AI Models." February 2026. https://bpi-agent-study.onrender.com/