Hut 8 Co-Founder Warns AI Risks Banking Shocks — SkimNews
Get the Finance newsletter
Daily finance — markets, central banks, M&A, the prints that move money. Free.
- Marc van der Chijs, Hut 8 co-founder, warned that competition among companies and nation-states has accelerated AI development beyond human control, potentially threatening financial systems and critical infrastructure.
- Van der Chijs predicted AI and robotics will eventually handle 90% to 95% of existing jobs, a scenario he said would force governments to seek new revenue sources such as taxes on robots or AI token usage.
- Van der Chijs sold much of his bitcoin to invest in AI but still considers bitcoin the single best asset to hold for life, saying 'if there's just one, it would be bitcoin.'
- Bitcoin staying below the $200,000–$250,000 range van der Chijs had anticipated was attributed by him to investors rotating capital into AI, with some AI profits now being redeployed into crypto via ETFs.
- Hut 8's pivot into AI infrastructure was called 'the best move ever' by co-founder van der Chijs, who said AI data centers offer a stronger business case than bitcoin mining.
- Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has similarly cautioned that AI models recursively improving themselves risk exceeding human control, a view van der Chijs says he now shares.
- Van der Chijs favors Tesla and SpaceX over Anthropic for five-year returns, even while expecting leading AI developers to eventually become the world's largest companies.
Why it matters: Van der Chijs's pivot from AI optimist to 'doomer' in a single week echoes Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's warnings about self-improving models outpacing human control. His bitcoin-to-AI capital rotation shows the same competitive pressure he now fears is actively draining investment from crypto.
Ask SkimNews
