They state that all that glitters is not gold, a concept that took on an entirely different connotation this month when an American fusion startup asserted it had successfully created gold using mercury.
Rather than utilizing chemical trickery, Marathon Fusion’s technique depends on nuclear transmutation. Their research paper describes how high-energy neutrons originating from a deuterium-tritium fusion reaction can bombard mercury-198, generating a radioactive isotope that eventually decays into stable gold-197.
Therefore, if gold possesses what some are referring to as an “infinite mint bug,” what will happen to the centuries-old metal so highly valued for its rarity? And what, if anything, might that signify for Bitcoin as digital gold given its strictly capped supply?
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong perceives these developments as favoring Bitcoin, comparing the generation of “brand-new gold through alchemy” to the artificial diamond market. “However, you cannot invent anything that will elevate Bitcoin’s supply,” he remarked. “There will only ever be 21 million.”
Possibly inspired by the widespread appeal of lab-grown diamonds, Marathon co-founder and CEO Kyle Schiller informs Magazine that he has received significant interest from jewelers.
“We have received an astonishing amount of interest from individuals wishing to create jewelry,” Schiller notes. “Similar to conventional gold, I believe it will primarily function as a store of value.”
Yet before gold advocates begin panicking, Marathon’s accomplishment remains a considerable distance from demonstrating that gold can be manufactured affordably on a mass scale.
Nikos Kavalis, managing director at precious metals research firm Metals Focus, informs Magazine, “We are nowhere near a phase where we can discuss production significance.”
“While references to alchemical dreams produce compelling headlines, I expect gold miners will retain their employment for the foreseeable future!”
Can gold ever really be manufactured at scale?
The underlying nuclear mechanism is scientifically credible, but translating it into a cost-effective industrial procedure is an entirely different matter.
Related: JPMorgan projects Bitcoin to outperform US stocks and gold over next decade
Marathon stated it had generated stable gold at a velocity 10 times greater than CERN’s record, the European particle physics facility where researchers utilize powerful accelerators to investigate the fundamental constituents of matter.
Nuclear fusion turned mercury into gold. Source: Marathon Fusion
Nevertheless, CERN’s ALICE trial only yielded an estimated 29 picograms of gold nuclei throughout its 2015-2018 operational window, and those nuclei persisted for merely fractions of a second prior to being annihilated in collisions.
The corporation has not publicly disclosed the precise volume yielded by the test. Marathon research engineer Jake Harter tells Magazine the quantities remain extremely modest, “currently still microscopic,” though the organization aims to achieve “macroscopic milligram amounts by 2027.”
Consequently, the much higher figures featured in Marathon’s publication represent projections for an upcoming fusion power station, rather than current output levels.
The paper models a generation rate of roughly two metric tonnes of gold per gigawatt of thermal fusion energy annually. To provide perspective, the World Gold Council reports that globally, mines extracted 3,672 tonnes of gold during 2025, meaning a single future fusion plant’s yield would appear modest by comparison.
Even to attain those benchmarks, Harter mentions the enterprise would need to scale up manufacturing of the enriched mercury utilized for gold generation, alongside constructing the actual fusion reactor itself.
“Throughout the course of maturing this technology, we will also engage in studies illustrating material compatibility, mercury circulation, and gold extraction,” he explains.
Could gold follow the lab-grown diamond playbook?
It proves difficult to avoid drawing comparisons like Armstrong’s connecting Marathon’s nuclear gold to lab-created diamonds. Wholesale valuations for lab-grown diamonds have dropped by more than 90% since 2018 as production capacity expanded. Unlike older diamond alternatives such as cubic zirconia, the chemical makeup of newer lab-grown diamonds matches mined diamonds precisely at a fraction of the cost. Could an identical trend impact gold?
Marathon Fusion research paper. Source: Marathon Fusion
According to Nagham Hassan, a market strategist at investment network eToro, drawing parallels with lab-grown diamonds is understandable, yet “the economic fundamentals are entirely distinct.”
While diamond manufacturing grew progressively cheaper as factories scaled up, she noted that generating gold through nuclear fusion “would demand highly intricate infrastructure that remains commercially unavailable.”
Related: Bitcoin will become ‘less volatile’ and larger than gold: ‘The Bitcoin Standard’ author
An additional complication is that the resulting gold would exhibit radioactivity.
“The gold would require storage for slightly longer than a decade before declining to banana-level [radio]activity,” Harter states, though because the majority of gold is “merely retained as an investment,” he views this as a minor obstacle to early commercialization.
A greater obstacle involves the uncertainty surrounding whether the economics will ever prove viable.
“There is zero proof that this method is commercially sustainable,” Kavalis remarks. “Theoretical revenue estimates exist, yet nothing indicates the actual operational expenses for the reactors.”
Would Bitcoin benefit if gold became less scarce?
Bitcoin is frequently characterized as digital gold because its supply is constrained by protocol guidelines and restricted to a 21 million limit, though Armstrong counters that no individual can invent a mechanism to fabricate future coins.
Should an emerging technology such as nuclear fusion unlock an alternative gold supply vector, it could theoretically exert downward pressure on market valuations.
“For any asset, a significant expansion in accessible inventory would, assuming all else remains equal, place downward pressure on its market pricing,” Fabian Schär, professor of distributed ledger technology and fintech at the University of Basel, informs Magazine.
“Under the hypothetical premise of affordable mass production, gold would prove no exception.”
Nevertheless, with initial fusion reactors estimated to be at least a decade distant, alongside numerous persistent questions concerning the financial feasibility of this novel alchemy form, it is unlikely to provide Bitcoin prices with a near-term catalyst.
Consequently, at least for now, Marathon’s work functions primarily as a fascinating trial featuring potentially intriguing applications rather than an immediate hazard to the precious metals marketplace.
Peter Schiff and his associates can therefore exhale with relief.
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Originally published at https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/will-golds-infinite-mint-bug-make-bitcoin-more-valuable?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound.
