Hut 8 Co-Founder Warns AI Growth Could Pose Systemic Risks

Hut 8 co-founder Marc van der Chijs warned in a CoinDesk interview that intense competition between companies and nations is accelerating artificial intelligence development beyond human control, creating potential systemic risks for financial systems and critical infrastructure. According to ChainCatcher, he said the situation has already been lost to control and that systemic damage or catastrophic failure may be nearly unavoidable before real international guardrails are established. Van der Chijs said AI and robotics could eventually replace 90% to 95% of existing jobs and sharply reduce the cost of goods and services, forcing governments to seek new revenue sources such as taxes on robots or AI use. He also said AI could expose vulnerabilities in traditional banking software and weaken confidence in institutions that rely on interconnected systems. In crypto, he argued that businesses built around Bitcoin, such as exchanges, may be more vulnerable than the underlying network itself. He said he previously sold a large amount of Bitcoin to invest in AI and believes capital shifting into AI helped prevent Bitcoin from reaching his earlier $200,000 to $250,000 target. He is now reinvesting some AI profits into crypto assets through exchange-traded funds. Van der Chijs said he still views Bitcoin as the only asset worth holding for life and called Hut 8's move into AI data centers the best decision it has ever made.