Binance founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao said Thursday, August 27, that Bitcoin will reach $1 million per coin much sooner than many expect, and will eventually surpass gold's total market value — comments delivered during a keynote appearance at the Bitcoin Asia conference in Hong Kong.

What CZ Said

"I think for Bitcoin to hit $1,000,000 would be a good thing. And it'll happen," Zhao said during a session called "The Bitcoin Century," moderated by When Shift Happens host Kevin Follonier on the conference's opening day at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center. He pushed back specifically on longer timelines some have floated for the milestone: "I don't think we need 25 years. I think it's gonna happen much quicker."

Price Isn't the Real Milestone, He Says

Despite the bold price call, Zhao was careful to reframe what he considers the more meaningful benchmark. Rather than price alone, he emphasized that Bitcoin needs greater real-world use — specifically, adoption in large-scale payments and inclusion as a holding within pension and retirement funds. For Zhao, that kind of everyday financial integration would signal genuine mainstream adoption, as opposed to price appreciation driven primarily by speculative momentum.

Why He Thinks Bitcoin Could Surpass Gold

Zhao argued Bitcoin's rising influence would gradually elevate its status above traditional stores of value, most notably gold, positioning the cryptocurrency as a modern alternative to the metal's historical role as the world's default hedge and reserve asset.

Bitcoin's Diminishing Supply

Zhao has separately pointed to Bitcoin's fixed supply cap as a core pillar of his bullish long-term view. As of August 2026, more than 20.07 million Bitcoin have already been mined, leaving just 4.4% of the total 21 million supply still to be created. Zhao has noted that with roughly 23.6 million millionaires currently in the US alone — more than the total Bitcoin in circulation — "soon, millionaires won't be able to own a full Bitcoin." He has also estimated that 10-20% of existing Bitcoin is likely lost, inaccessible, or otherwise unrecoverable, characterizing the asset as effectively even more deflationary than its headline supply cap suggests, since much of the usable circulating supply is smaller than the raw 21 million figure implies.

A Prediction With a Rough Timeline Attached

In a separate, more detailed interview with The Block earlier this year, Zhao laid out the mathematical reasoning behind a possible 2033 timeline for Bitcoin reaching $1 million — while explicitly stopping short of presenting it as a firm forecast. His reasoning rests on Bitcoin's historical cycle behavior: viewing 2025 as a bear-market year, followed by bull cycles in 2029 and 2033, and applying a rough historical multiplier of three to five times growth per cycle from current levels.

A Pattern of Escalating Predictions

Thursday's comments continue a consistent, if gradually intensifying, pattern in Zhao's public price forecasts. In a May 2025 interview, he projected Bitcoin could peak between $500,000 and $1 million, citing institutional adoption through ETFs and growing state-level crypto accumulation in the US as key catalysts, at a time when Bitcoin traded near $97,000. His more recent comments in Hong Kong represent a more confident, accelerated version of that same underlying thesis.

Bitcoin's "Danger" for Non-Adopting Countries

Beyond his price forecast, Zhao also told the Bitcoin Asia audience that Bitcoin is "dangerous" for countries that choose not to adopt or engage with the cryptocurrency — a framing that positions Bitcoin adoption as a matter of national economic competitiveness, rather than simply an investment or payments question for individual holders.

Context: Who's Making the Prediction

Zhao, widely known by his initials CZ, founded Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, and remains one of the most closely watched and influential voices in the global crypto industry. Notably, Zhao received a pardon from President Trump earlier this year following a prior criminal case, a detail that has continued to draw attention alongside his public commentary on Bitcoin's trajectory.

What's Next

With Bitcoin currently trading well below the $1 million mark Zhao is forecasting, his comments are likely to fuel continued debate among analysts and investors over both the timeline and the underlying drivers — institutional adoption, ETF flows, sovereign accumulation, and real-world payment integration — that would need to align for such a dramatic price move to materialize. For continuing coverage of the Bitcoin Asia conference, see the full Bitcoin Magazine report.

This article discusses cryptocurrency price predictions, which are inherently speculative. Nothing here constitutes financial advice — always do your own research before making investment decisions.