Binance Founder: Bitcoin Could Surpass Gold in Next Rally

Bitcoin will surpass gold, and this could happen during the next bull market, said Binance founder Changpeng Zhao at a conference in Hong Kong on Thursday.

– I believe Bitcoin will definitely become more important than gold – Zhao said during the conference when asked if crypto assets would surpass traditional stores of value.

The obstacle, he claimed, is institutional rather than technical in nature. Large countries already have developed mechanisms for valuing and holding gold, and replacing such a system takes years. It will take time for those countries to ‘switch to Bitcoin’, but it will happen, he said, noting that the gap in market value between gold and Bitcoin has narrowed to about ten times.

– I think Bitcoin will soon surpass gold – he said, adding that it is simply a much better asset than gold, joking that long-time Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff would not agree.

Zhao told the audience that he routinely advises governments to build a crypto reserve and that his recommendation for this is quite simple and somewhat selfish. Isolate stablecoins, take the five largest remaining cryptocurrencies, and weight them according to market capitalization. This gives approximately 50 percent Bitcoin, 10 to 20 percent Ethereum, and a portion for BNB, the token of the crypto exchange he founded.

Agents, Tokens, and Data Centers

Zhao expects that artificial intelligence agents will conduct transactions in cryptocurrencies, starting with stablecoins. Once systems accept such payments, he said, adding Bitcoin becomes straightforward.

He also mentioned that he has discussed launching tokens with several leading artificial intelligence companies, which are facing capital needs that their current valuations struggle to cover. Building gigawatts of computing infrastructure costs between 30 and 50 billion dollars, Zhao said, and some companies want hundreds of gigawatts within a few years, reaching trillions of dollars.

One model being discussed is the ‘data center token’ that later grants owners rights to rewards or computing, potentially expanded to subscriptions and access models.

Trading will adopt artificial intelligence before payments, he claims, as consumers can already complete purchases themselves after an agent finds them a deal. Trading is different, he said, because it requires rapid gathering of large amounts of information and almost instantaneous reaction to news. He estimated that the increase in efficiency will be about tenfold.

Zhao, who stepped down as CEO of Binance in 2023 after pleading guilty to a money laundering charge in the U.S., reflected on the price at the end of his appearance at the conference. He believes Bitcoin will reach one million dollars and does not think it will take 25 years.

– This will happen much faster, but more than the price, I think we need much greater utility. I believe that large-scale Bitcoin payments are necessary for that. I think we need Bitcoin as a reserve for pension funds. It will come to that. – concluded CZ.