CZ Says $1 Million Bitcoin Won't Take 25 Years: What Has to Happen First?

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) says $1 million Bitcoin will not take 25 years. Asked at Bitcoin Asia 2026 in Hong Kong what would define the Bitcoin century, he pointed to a much shorter clock.

The price, he argued Thursday, is the easy part. The real work is utility, from payments at scale to Bitcoin inside retirement and pension reserves.

What Has to Happen for $1 Million Bitcoin

CZ’s fireside chat was titled The Bitcoin Century. The host asked whether the milestone needs a quarter century. The Binance executive gave a shorter timeline.

“I actually don’t think we need 25 years. I think it’s gonna happen much quicker. But more than price, I think we need a lot more utility,” he said in stage.

His checklist is short, comprising the use of Bitcoin for mass payments and a seat in retirement and pension funds. He expects the core infrastructure built within 10 years.

Part of that checklist is already moving. President Trump opened the door for crypto in 401(k)s in August 2025. Washington also turned seized coins into a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve under a March 2025 executive order, and Trump recently hinted at more purchases.

The scale of the call is still easy to miss, with Bitcoin trading for $79,323 as of this writing. A $1 million price target would therefore imply a nearly 13x climb.

Bitcoin has made a move that size before, running from about $5,000 in March 2020 to $69,000 by late 2021. It was a much smaller asset then.

The Gold Flip and a Reserve Recipe

CZ repeated his warning that ignoring Bitcoin is as risky as sitting out artificial intelligence (AI). He also expects Bitcoin to displace gold in national reserves.

“I think Bitcoin will, for sure, become more important than gold.”

He put the gap to gold at roughly 10x. The real number is tougher. Market trackers value above-ground gold near $32 trillion against bitcoin’s $1.58 trillion, closer to 20x.

Notwithstanding, his two calls do fit together, though. At $1 million per coin, Bitcoin’s roughly 20 million circulating coins would be worth about $20 trillion. That is still below gold’s value today, so his price target does not even require a full flip.

For governments that want in, his recipe is simple. Take the top five cryptocurrencies, drop the stablecoins, and weight by market cap.

That lands near 50% in BTC, up to 20% in Ethereum (ETH), and a slice in BNB, Binance’s own token. CZ admitted the advice is somewhat self-serving.

Not everyone shares the urgency. Analyst Benjamin Cowen recently argued crypto is the cheapest since 2010 relative to fair value, and said prices could fall further before any run toward record territory.

CZ’s clock is aggressive, and the 20x gold gap shows the ground left to cover. Nevertheless, the milestones he named, payments, pensions, and state reserves, give readers a scoreboard to track.