Fusion startup says it turned mercury into gold — Bitcoin angle, explained

A US fusion startup, Marathon Fusion, says it has turned mercury into gold using nuclear fusion — the same process that powers the sun. The claim, reported by Cointelegraph on Oct 30, 2026, has sparked debate about whether gold could one day be manufactured, and whether that would make Bitcoin — a digital currency whose supply is fixed at 21 million coins by its own software rules — look more attractive as 'digital gold'.

This is a claim by the company, not yet a proven industrial process. Experts quoted in the report say real gold production at scale is still far away.

Key points at a glance

• Marathon Fusion says it produced stable gold from mercury-198 using high-energy neutrons from a fusion reaction — a process called nuclear transmutation, where one element is changed into another.
• The company says it produced gold at 10 times the rate of CERN's record, but the amounts are still microscopic.
• Experts say the process is scientifically plausible but there is no proof it is commercially viable.
• Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong argued no one can increase Bitcoin's supply: 'There will only ever be 21M.'

What Marathon Fusion claims

The startup's research paper describes irradiating mercury-198 with neutrons from a deuterium-tritium fusion reaction. This creates a radioactive isotope that decays into stable gold-197 — the normal form of gold.

Co-founder and CEO Kyle Schiller told Cointelegraph the company has received strong interest from jewelers, but he expects the metal to be mostly used as a store of value, like regular gold.

How far this is from real production

The gap between the claim and commercial gold mining is large:

• CERN's ALICE experiment produced an estimated 29 picograms of gold nuclei during its 2015-2018 run — and they existed for fractions of a second before being destroyed.
• Marathon research engineer Jake Harter said current quantities are 'right now still microscopic,' with hopes of reaching milligram quantities in 2027.
• The paper's bigger numbers — about two tonnes of gold per gigawatt of thermal fusion power per year — are projections for a future fusion power plant. Global mines produced 3,672 tonnes of gold in 2025, according to the World Gold Council.
• Nikos Kavalis of precious metals research firm Metals Focus said: 'We are nowhere near a stage where we can talk about production significance.' He added there is 'no demonstration that the process is commercially viable.'

The lab-grown diamond comparison

Armstrong compared the idea to lab-grown diamonds, whose wholesale prices fell more than 90% since 2018 as production scaled up. But eToro market analyst Nagham Hassan said the economics are 'completely different': diamond production got cheaper in factories, while fusion gold 'would require highly complex infrastructure that does not yet exist commercially.'

There is another catch — the gold would be radioactive. Harter said it would need to be stored for slightly over a decade before dropping to 'banana-levels' of radioactivity, though he does not see that as a major barrier since most gold is simply stored as an investment.

Does this actually help Bitcoin?

The argument, made by Armstrong, is that gold's scarcity can theoretically be broken by new technology, while Bitcoin's supply cannot: no invention can create more than 21 million coins. Some have dubbed the fusion process gold's 'infinite mint bug.'

Fabian Schär, professor at the University of Basel, offered the general economic principle: for any asset, a substantial increase in available supply would, other things being equal, put downward pressure on its price — gold included, under the hypothetical assumption of inexpensive production at scale.

However, the report notes the first fusion reactors are estimated to be at least a decade away, with major questions over cost. So any effect on gold — or a boost to Bitcoin's narrative — is not expected soon.

What is confirmed vs still unproven

Confirmed from the reporting: Marathon Fusion published a research paper and publicly announced the achievement; the nuclear process it describes is scientifically plausible; expert commentary and price context come from named sources.

Unproven or unclear: the exact quantity of gold produced has not been publicly stated; commercial viability has not been demonstrated; reactor costs are unknown; the tonnage figures are future projections, not current output.

Why this matters

Gold's value rests heavily on its scarcity. If fusion could someday produce gold cheaply, that scarcity argument weakens — which is why the crypto community immediately framed this as a point in Bitcoin's favor. For now, though, this is a fascinating experiment, not an imminent shake-up of the gold market.

Sources

• Cointelegraph — Will gold's 'infinite mint bug' make Bitcoin more valuable?