Nuclear fusion can turn mercury into gold, but CERN’s ALICE experiment produced only an estimated 29 picograms of gold nuclei between 2015 and 2018. Marathon Fusion hopes to reach macroscopic milligram quantities in 2027 and estimates that a future plant could produce about two tonnes of gold per gigawatt of thermal power annually, compared with 3,672 tonnes mined globally in 2025. The gold would remain radioactive for roughly a decade, and the process has yet to demonstrate commercial viability. Abundant, inexpensive production could put downward pressure on gold’s price and, by extension, weaken Bitcoin’s advantage as a scarce asset. That scenario remains distant, however, because the first fusion reactors are at least a decade away and Marathon has not yet built the required infrastructure.
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