Bitcoin Will Surpass Gold, Binance Founder Predicts at Hong Kong Conference

The Timeline and Institutional Barriers

At the Bitcoin Asia conference in Hong Kong, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao outlined a compelling thesis: Bitcoin will eventually overtake gold as the preferred store of value for sovereign nations and major institutions. Speaking during a panel discussion titled “The Bitcoin Century,” Zhao addressed the question of whether cryptocurrency could ever rival bullion as a reserve asset for countries building diversified foreign holdings.

Zhao acknowledged that gold currently maintains a significant valuation advantage, with the market value of all gold reserves sitting at roughly tenfold that of Bitcoin. Despite this substantial gap, he argued that the distance between the two assets continues to compress. He suggested that Bitcoin could surpass gold during the next major bull run, though he cautioned that the timeline for widespread government adoption remains measured in years rather than months.

The primary barrier to this transition is structural rather than technical, according to Zhao. Nations have spent decades developing elaborate systems for valuing, storing, and managing gold reserves. These institutional frameworks have become deeply embedded in international finance and monetary policy. A meaningful shift toward Bitcoin would require dismantling these established systems and building new infrastructure capable of managing and securing digital assets at scale. Large countries will take considerable time to transition, but Zhao insisted the shift is inevitable.

Government Reserves and Artificial Intelligence

When addressing how governments should construct cryptocurrency reserves, Zhao presented a straightforward methodology: exclude stablecoins entirely and select the five largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, weighting each holding proportionally. This approach yields a portfolio of approximately 50% Bitcoin, between 10% and 20% Ethereum, with the remainder distributed among other major digital assets—notably including BNB, the native token of Binance.

Looking forward, Zhao emphasized the transformative potential of artificial intelligence in accelerating cryptocurrency adoption. He anticipates that AI agents will begin transacting in digital currencies, initially through stablecoins before expanding into Bitcoin and other assets. This natural progression, he suggested, would make it straightforward for any system accepting stablecoins to eventually incorporate Bitcoin.

Zhao revealed he has been in discussions with several prominent artificial intelligence companies about potential token launches. These firms confront enormous capital requirements; a single gigawatt of computing capacity demands between $30 billion and $50 billion in investment, with some companies aiming to secure hundreds of gigawatts within coming years—driving capital needs into the trillions of dollars. Tokenized offerings could provide an alternative financing mechanism to address these extraordinary capital demands.

Bitcoin’s eventual ascendancy over gold would mark a historic shift in how the world stores and transfers value, with profound implications for adoption across the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem including XRP.

Source: Changpeng Zhao, via Decrypt. Not financial advice.