Could a nuclear war kill crypto? AI predicts Bitcoin’s fate in doomsday scenario

• BTC’s price could crash 10%-80% if nuclear war escalates from local to regional or continent-wide.  
• The Bitcoin network would be severely degraded when only 1000 nodes remain active. 

Bitcoin [BTC] has a religious following, especially for those who believe it’s a hedge against inflation and political instability, like the ongoing Israel-Iran war. But, what if it cracks in a nuclear doomsday?  

Many wealthy individuals, like Mexico’s richest man, Ricardo Salinas, and leaders like U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, have embraced BTC and crypto as a hedge. 

In fact, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, pitches BTC as a hedge equivalent or better than gold. However, AI predicts that the digital gold may not survive a nuclear apocalypse. 

Bitcoin network vs. nuclear war

For starters, it is crucial to understand the Bitcoin network, miners who secure it, and nodes that run the protocol to ensure transaction reliability. 

As of mid-2025, the network has 22,129 reachable nodes (including mining nodes) spread across the globe. 

Source: NewHedge 

According to public and official data, the U.S. controls 10.2% of BTC nodes, followed by Germany (5.8%) and France (2.6%). 

All the top three are nuclear powers, while China, per official data, owns only 0.15%. However, nearly 64% of nodes remained unaccounted for or unknown. 

Per ChatGPT, China may be controlling most of these ‘unknown’ nodes, as most of their operators opted for VPNs and went underground after the state banned BTC mining in 2021.   

Source: ChatGPT

Unravelling scenarios

In a major conflict wiping out 60-80% of the internet, Bitcoin active nodes could drop from the current 22K to 1K, leading to transaction failure, alongside the proof of work (PoW) consensus. 

Most of the U.S. and Germany nodes would be offline for an average war, like between Russia and NATO, per ChatGPT predictions. But P2P connections could be resumed in weeks. 

However, a worldwide nuclear escalation would drive the network into a ‘critical failure state’, and the consensus program would stop. 

The above war scales and impact on the Bitcoin network would impact BTC’s value differently. 

But ChatGPT added that BTC pricing will be modified by other factors like market psychology and sentiment.  

Source: ChatGPT

Small scale war

For a confined conflict, BTC could be viewed as a hedge, like the current Israel-Iran war. It has stayed above $100K despite the war rhetoric from leaders, including the U.S. President Donald Trump.

In fact, Bitwise’s Head of Alpha Strategies reinforced this stance and recently stated, 

“This moment (geopolitical tensions) is why Bitcoin exists.”

Meanwhile, other analysts, like QCP Capital, warned that a wider regional war could affect oil supply and global inflation, putting BTC at risk.

According to ChatGPT, however, such a regional scale, involving nuclear warheads, would lead to price swings with mixed sentiment. 

However, in a global and total annihilation scenario, food and barter trade will be more valuable, and the internet and BTC will be dead. 

This is how ChatGPT charted out the above probabilities on the potential price crash for BTC. 

Source: ChatGPT

For a localized attack, the network would remain steady, and the price could dip about 10%-30%.

In fact, this is considered a normal pullback during bull markets. Per current prices, that would imply a drop to $98K-$75K. 

For a regional nuclear war, BTC price would crash 30%-60%, implying a potential dip to $75K-$42K as most nodes go offline. 

In continent-wide destruction (2-3 powers annihilated), ChatGPT projected a 60-80% decline. That would be a free fall to $42K-20K.

This could be a great discount for survivors if Bitcoin survives and rallies above $100K. However, only 1000 nodes could be online, risking a protocol split or fork. 

But, as a survivor with no internet access, you’ll likely care about food and shelter if the entire world is nuked. In short, BTC would cease to exist as a market asset and probably tank to zero. 

Overall, BTC could become worthless if nukes destroy the internet and nodes.

But ChatGPT highlighted that it could survive only if there is a backup in satellites with enough running nodes to keep it decentralized and secure before full re-connection later on.

That said, as of June 2025, there was only an 18% chance of a nuclear bomb going off in 2025. So, it could be too early to put your nuclear war worries on BTC.