- Recent developments at CERN have the potential to disrupt the gold market significantly, paving the way for Bitcoin to be viewed as an alternative store of wealth.
- As analysts predict a shift in investor sentiment, Bitcoin may benefit from a declining perception of gold’s value due to lab-grown alternatives.
- “This is REALLY bad for GOLD,” remarked crypto analyst Ran Neuner, highlighting the impact of lab-created gold on traditional assets.
Explore how scientific advancements threaten gold’s market value, and how Bitcoin could emerge as a key player in wealth preservation.
Crypto News of the Day: Gold Faces Major Threat from Science, Bitcoin to $1 Million By 2028?
Reports indicate that scientists at CERN have successfully recreated gold in a laboratory setting. At Europe’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), researchers converted lead into gold, achieving an impressive output of 89,000 atoms per second.
Utilizing the LHC, a colossal particle accelerator designed to collide atoms at incredible speeds, the research team removed three protons from lead atoms, transforming them into gold atoms.
The process involves striking atoms with powerful electromagnetic fields, prompting a metamorphosis into different elements. The ALICE Collaboration’s discovery raises serious questions about gold’s value, potentially reducing its scarcity significantly.
[Press Update] @ALICEexperiment detects the conversion of lead into gold at the LHC
Find out more: https://t.co/XyR8F6NjRo pic.twitter.com/WaiMF6q03q
— CERNpress (@CERNpress) May 8, 2025
While the breakthrough is significant, it’s important to note that the lab-created gold degrades almost immediately, making it impossible to collect. Still, future advancements could lead to commercialization.
Crypto analyst Ran Neuner warned, “This is REALLY bad for GOLD. Scientists can literally recreate Gold in a lab, and this makes Gold no longer scarce.” Neuner’s analysis suggests that lab-created gold will closely resemble mined gold, causing its market value to plummet.
“Neither the human eye nor a magnifying glass can detect the difference, and the cost is about 1% of the original. Once people realize this, there will be a huge shift into Bitcoin,” he stated, drawing parallels with the market reaction to lab-grown diamonds.
Neuner posits that if gold’s scarcity diminishes, investors may increasingly turn to Bitcoin as a reliable store of value.
However, Bitcoin itself faces challenges, notably from emerging quantum computing technologies, which could undermine its security. COINOTAG highlighted concerns from BlackRock, noting that advancements in quantum computing could compromise the cryptographic algorithms that protect Bitcoin.
JPMorgan Predicts Bitcoin to Outpace Gold in 2025
Amid these transformative developments, JPMorgan analysts foresee Bitcoin surpassing gold in market capitalization within the next year. They attribute this prediction to a surge in institutional adoption and corporate treasuries reallocating funds towards Bitcoin.
Supporting this trend, data from River shows a remarkable 154% increase in business Bitcoin holdings since 2024, with over 2,000 companies using River’s platform to accumulate BTC.
Industry Breakdown of Businesses Using Bitcoin. Source: River.
JPMorgan’s analysts cited recent legislative measures facilitating state investments in Bitcoin as another positive factor.
“We expect the year-to-date zero-sum game between gold and Bitcoin to extend to the remainder of the year, but we are biased towards crypto-specific catalysts creating more upside for Bitcoin over gold into the second half of the year,” they noted in a recent report.
In a similarly optimistic vein, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes predicts Bitcoin could soar to $1 million by 2028, citing US capital controls that may trigger capital flight from traditional markets.
Hayes contends that monetary expansion, resulting in the devaluation of US treasuries, will drive investors toward Bitcoin as an alternative asset, propelling its price higher.
“Foreign capital repatriation and the devaluation of the gargantuan stock of US treasuries will be the two catalysts that will power Bitcoin to $1 million sometime between now and 2028,” he stated in a recent blog post.
Chart of the Day
Byte-Sized Alpha
Here’s a summary of more US crypto news to follow today:
- Coinbase faces backlash after an insider leaked user records, with allegations claiming Coinbase knew of the breach since January but delayed disclosure, leaving users vulnerable.
- Frank, ex-CEO of DeGods, lost 16 NFTs worth $19,000 in a post-resignation hack, sparking intense debate over their authenticity.
- US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $115 million net inflows Thursday, showing steady institutional interest despite recent market volatility.
- Fourteen US states disclosed $632 million in Strategy’s MSTR stock in Q1 2025, up 91.5% from $330 million in Q4 2024, signaling growing exposure.
- Pi Network’s $100 million Ventures fund sparks backlash as the community expected tangible app progress after six years of delays and unmet promises. Critics highlight missing promised 100 DApps, referral reward failures, KYC delays, and questionable ad revenue transparency within Pi’s ecosystem.
- Over 17 billion XRP, worth $40.2 billion, were sold in a week, signaling potential profit-taking and price correction.
- Brazilian fintech Méliuz became Brazil’s first Bitcoin treasury company, holding 320.2 BTC worth $33.3 million. This shows strong BTC adoption in Latam.
Crypto Equities Pre-Market Overview
| Company | At the Close of May 15 | Pre-Market Overview |
| Strategy (MSTR) | $397.03 | $402.00 (+1.25%) |
| Coinbase Global (COIN) | $244.44 | $249.00 (+1.87%) |
| Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY.TO) | $30.57 | $29.24 (-4.35%) |
| MARA Holdings (MARA) | $15.68 | $15.83 (+0.96%) |
| Riot Platforms (RIOT) | $8.70 | $8.80 (+1.15%) |
| Core Scientific (CORZ) | $10.51 | $10.65 (+1.33%) |
