Citrini Research has published a fictional June 2028 macro memo imagining an economy transformed by artificial intelligence, where corporate profits surge while consumer demand erodes under mass layoffs.
In the scenario, the S&P 500 briefly “flirted with 8000” and the Nasdaq “broke above 30k” as investors celebrated an AI-driven productivity boom before collapsing demand and rising unemployment triggered a 40% to 60% market drawdown.
Citrini described the outcome as “ghost GDP,” where output surges on paper while wages crumble in reality, as software replaces six-figure roles and joblessness in the fictional account climbs to 10.2%.
The memo argues that a negative feedback loop emerges as laid-off workers cut spending, companies deploy more AI to defend margins, and housing markets buckle under roughly $13 trillion in mortgages predicated on stable employment.
In payments, the authors suggest autonomous AI agents bypass traditional card networks such as Visa and Mastercard, opting instead to settle transactions in stablecoins on high-throughput chains like Solana and Ethereum.
Bitwise adviser Jeff Park summarised the wealth effects by stating that:
“Wealth inequality widens to unseen levels,”
Adding that asset ownership becomes “more powerful than labor as AI reduces the latter to zero,” and that Bitcoin breaks through $1 million.
Although framed as a forward-looking dispatch from 2028, the memo was published in February 2026, amplifying debate over whether elements of the imagined AI-driven labour shock and migration to crypto rails are already beginning to materialise.
At the time of reporting, Solana price was $77.87.