Simon Gerovich, CEO of the Japanese investment firm Metaplanet, has publicly argued that the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) will fundamentally reshape the global economy, compelling major corporations to adopt Bitcoin as their primary reserve asset. His comments were made in response to a viral research report from Citrini Research, which paints a grim economic picture from a June 2028 perspective, forecasting a 38% drop in the S&P 500 and an unemployment rate exceeding 10%.
Gerovich's core thesis is that AI-driven productivity gains will primarily benefit the owners of capital and computing power, not labor or governments. He warns that this will erode the traditional tax base, leading governments to respond with monetary expansion (printing money) to cover debts. "Every company holding cash or bond reserves is maintaining a position in a system whose tax base is evaporating, and whose inevitable response will be monetary expansion," Gerovich stated. This dynamic, he argues, will accelerate a transition already underway, forcing companies to redirect reserves into Bitcoin to avoid exposure to the depreciation of traditional fiat currencies.
The Metaplanet CEO further elaborated that AI agents—automated systems—will naturally bypass human-centric financial infrastructure. "When machines start optimizing financial plumbing they route around card networks, around banks, around friction. They transact in digital assets because that’s what makes sense for a machine," he wrote on X. He predicts AI agents will settle transactions for fractions of a penny using stablecoins on networks like Solana or Ethereum Layer 2s, undermining revenue for traditional payment processors like Mastercard and Visa.
For storing value, Gerovich asserts AI agents will logically choose Bitcoin. "They’ll hold digital capital. They’ll hold Bitcoin," he said, noting that AI has no brand loyalty to banks and will seek assets that cannot be inflated or seized. The Citrini Research report, which Gerovich referenced, details a "Human Intelligence Displacement Spiral" where AI success leads to massive white-collar job losses, collapsing consumer spending power, and forcing further corporate reliance on AI—a cycle that deepens macroeconomic vulnerabilities.
Metaplanet itself is a significant corporate Bitcoin holder, currently ranking as the fourth-largest among publicly traded companies, behind MicroStrategy (Saylor's Strategy), MARA Holdings, and Twenty One Capital. Gerovich's view frames Bitcoin accumulation not as a strategic choice, but as a future "structural necessity" for corporations navigating an AI-dominated economy.
