Bitcoin will overtake gold — and it could happen as soon as the next bull run. That was the message from Binance founder Changpeng Zhao at the Bitcoin Asia conference in Hong Kong, where the industry’s most prominent former executive made his boldest call yet on the flagship cryptocurrency’s trajectory against the traditional store of value.
“I think Bitcoin will, for sure, become more important than gold,” Zhao said during a session billed as “The Bitcoin Century,” when asked whether the asset would outrank bullion for sovereign holders. The obstacle, he argued, is institutional rather than technical: large countries already have systems for valuing and holding gold, and replacing that apparatus takes years.
“I think Bitcoin will overtake gold pretty soon,” he continued. “In the next bull run, it could happen.” Zhao described Bitcoin as “just a much better asset than gold,” joking that longtime Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff would disagree, and noted that the market value gap between the two assets has narrowed to roughly tenfold.
A tenfold gap and closing
The arithmetic gives the claim some context. Gold’s total market capitalization sits near the top of the global asset hierarchy, with Bitcoin valued at around a tenth of that. For Bitcoin to flip gold, its price would need to appreciate roughly tenfold from current levels without a corresponding rise in bullion — an outcome that would imply a seven-figure Bitcoin price.
Zhao did not shy away from that implication. Bitcoin reaching 1 million USD “would be a good thing, and it will happen,” he said, adding that he does not think it needs 25 years. “It’s going to happen much quicker, but more than price, I think we need a lot more utility,” he said, arguing that Bitcoin payments need to happen at massive scale and that the asset belongs in retirement and pension reserves. “It will get there.”
The “self-serving” reserve recipe
Zhao told the audience he routinely advises governments to build crypto reserves, and he was candid about the conflict of interest embedded in his recommendation. His suggested allocation is “pretty simple and it’s a little bit self-serving”: strip out stablecoins, take the five largest cryptocurrencies that remain, and weight them by market capitalization. That produces roughly 50 percent Bitcoin, 10 to 20 percent Ethereum, and a slice for BNB — the token of the exchange he founded.
The admission drew attention precisely because such candor is rare among industry promoters. Zhao left Binance’s chief executive role in 2023 after pleading guilty to a U.S. money-laundering charge as part of the settlement that ended a years-long criminal investigation, and his public appearances now carry the weight of a founder-statesman rather than a corporate officer.
AI agents, data centers and a new token frontier
The gold call was only part of a wide-ranging session. Zhao said he expects AI agents to transact in crypto, starting with stablecoins, and that once a system accepts those, adding Bitcoin becomes straightforward. Trading, in his view, will adopt AI before payments do, because consumers can already complete a purchase themselves once an agent finds the deal — whereas trading demands rapid information gathering and fast reactions to news, an area where he put the efficiency gain at roughly tenfold.
He also revealed that he has discussed token launches with several top-tier AI companies facing capital demands their valuations cannot cover. A gigawatt of compute costs somewhere between 30 billion and 50 billion USD, Zhao said, and some firms want hundreds of gigawatts within a few years — a bill running to trillions of dollars. One model under discussion is a “data center token” that would later entitle holders to rewards or compute, potentially extending to subscriptions and model access.
Skepticism and the sovereign question
Zhao’s timeline is aggressive even by bullish standards. Gold has served as a reserve asset for centuries, and central banks have been net buyers of bullion in recent years — a structural constituency that migrates slowly. His own framing conceded the friction: sovereign systems for valuing and holding gold are entrenched, and the shift will take years even if the destination is clear.
Still, the direction of travel has support beyond the conference stage. Bitcoin’s acceptance as a treasury asset by public companies, its integration into exchange-traded products and periodic discussion of strategic reserves by governments all point toward the institutionalization Zhao predicts — just on a timeline nobody can pin down.
For market watchers, the more actionable signal may be the qualifier he attached to the price target. Utility, not valuation, is the bottleneck in Zhao’s telling — payments at scale, pension-fund adoption, and real economic use. If that reads as a softer claim than “Bitcoin flips gold next cycle,” it is one investors can actually track. The gold market, meanwhile, has heard predictions of its own demise before; whether the next bull run finally delivers the flip, or merely narrows the gap further, will be one of the defining scoreboard questions of the cycle ahead.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
cz saying bitcoin flips gold next bull run while gold sits near 20 something trillion. tenfold gap closed in one cycle, sure thing bro
the honesty was strategic too ngl. costs him nothing when the market pumps his bags anyway
gap was like 100x a few years ago, tenfold now. directionally it keeps closing, just not on any timeline cz gets to pick
the closing is mostly btc grinding while gold sits flat near 20t. one sovereign buyer announcement moves that gap faster than any bull run narrative
100x to 10x in like 6 years. extrapolate that rate and cz is actually late with the next bull run call lol
the flip needs btc up 10x AND gold flat. if gold keeps grinding higher the next bull run call slips to the one after lol
gold flat is doing heavy lifting in that math. its already north of where most desk models had it and central banks keep buying every quarter. cz needs bullion to stall for years and that part never makes the clip
the rate cut cuts both ways though. 2013 was one year, the run to the 69 top took three, the last one longer still. extrapolate that pace and the next bull run lands around 2030, not next cycle
at least he admitted the reserve advice is self serving. thats more honesty than most conference keynotes manage
^ the self serving admission was the realest 10 seconds of that whole session tbh
institutional inertia is the correct obstacle honestly. countries have centuries of gold custody plumbing, swapping that for keys takes a decade not a bull run
ten years is optimistic for the custody swap tbh. gold’s entire pitch is that nobody has to trust keys
keys versus custody plumbing is exactly it. countries wont rebalance sovereign reserves into something one fat fingered keystroke away from gone, chart be damned
fat finger argument is 2021 vintage. sovereigns already hold treasuries through custodians, a qualified bitcoin custodian is the same trust model with better auditability
centuries of custody plumbing is exactly the moat. sovereign gold habits dont move in one cycle because a keynote speaker felt confident
ten x from here to flip gold means seven figure bitcoin. bold call from a guy who admits his own reserve advice is self serving
at least he said the quiet part out loud this time. most founders pushing strategic reserves never disclose the bias
the gap did narrow to roughly tenfold though. direction is right even if the timeline is pure hopium
gold near 20 trillion and btc needing a 10x in one cycle, cz really just drew a line on a chart and said follow it
its not even one clean 10x from here, he also needs gold to sit flat near 20t for years while btc does all the catching up. the framing is doing most of the work
gold sitting flat is actually the base case though. it ground sideways for a decade twice already. the aggressive assumption is btc doing a clean 10x without a blowoff top somewhere
btc also did its last 10x with three 70 percent drawdowns baked in. gold flat for a decade still beats holding through those for most sovereign mandates
bitcoin asia crowd cheering a seven figure call from the guy who literally admitted his reserve advice is self serving. the tenfold gap is real, the timeline is content
peter schiff is gonna have a field day with this quote lmao
Him admitting the reserve advice is self serving right before the gold call is at least consistent. Discount the source, not necessarily the math.
The institutional obstacle part was his strongest point honestly. Countries rebuilt gold custody plumbing twice this century already, adding a bitcoin sleeve is the easy half of the problem.
nobody quotes his actual condition. he said large countries already have gold plumbing, meaning the flip needs one G7 announcing a reserve sleeve, not price momentum alone