Changpeng Zhao, the billionaire founder of the Binance crypto exchange, is extremely bullish on Bitcoin's future. He said in an interview on Aug. 26 that Bitcoin will "for sure" become more i
Changpeng Zhao, the billionaire founder of the Binance crypto exchange, is extremely bullish on Bitcoin's future.
He said in an interview on Aug. 26 that Bitcoin will "for sure" become more important than gold, and that the next bull market could be the moment that gap closes.
"I think Bitcoin will overtake gold pretty soon. There's only like a 10x difference right now," Zhao said.
He suggested that Bitcoin's path to surpassing gold's market capitalization is a near-term possibility rather than a decades-away milestone.
The billionaire also addressed the economist Peter Schiff, well known for his bullish outlook on gold and anti-crypto stance, saying the duo have debated the gold versus Bitcoin question earlier.
“Bitcoin is just a much better asset than gold. I think Peter Schiff might not agree, but I've had that debate with him before," he said. "But you know Bitcoin is much more important. Majority of the people believe or have been believing for a long time that Bitcoin will be bigger than gold.”
Related: Analyst says Bitcoin surge is a warning sign for U.S. dollar
Zhao acknowledged the structural lag in sovereign adoption. He said that large countries have established mechanisms for valuing and holding gold, and shifting towards Bitcoin will take time.
“What we got to understand for large countries to change it takes many years, right? So today they have mechanism to value gold to hold gold. There's a whole mechanism there. For them to shift into Bitcoin will take some time or into crypto will take some time, but it will happen," he said.
Zhao was also asked what would need to happen over the next 25 years for the period to truly be remembered as Bitcoin's defining era.
"I think for Bitcoin to hit $1 million would be a good thing," he said, before adding that he doesn't think it needs 25 years to get there. "I think it's going to happen much quicker. But more than price, I think we need a lot more utility."
Beyond price, Zhao pointed to utility as the real benchmark, Bitcoin payments at massive scale and the leading cryptocurrency becoming a retirement and pension fund reserve.
"All of those things will happen. For 25 years, I think all of those things will happen," he said.
According to Decibel, Bitcoin was trading at 79,232 at the time of writing.
Related: Elon Musk's AI warning about the dollar is starting to come true
