Should You Trust Their Bitcoin Price Calls?

In general, Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, and Changpeng Zhao (CZ), former CEO of Binance, are usually vague in their predictions. Both are long-term bullish, and their statements about the market often seem to simply follow the price action. However, on some occasions, both can be more specific, but mostly when it comes to long-term forecasts, which seem to have more entertainment value than serious analytical value, given how complex both the world and Bitcoin itself are.

Coinbase’s Permabull Cuts $1M per BTC Forecast

For example, in August 2025, when BTC traded above $110,000, Armstrong said that BTC could reach $1 million by 2030. A year later, when the price is down around 30%, the CEO cut his prediction by 60-70%, saying that “over the next couple of years, say 2030, it’s very likely we’ll see a $300,000 and $400,000 bitcoin, and we’ll see how it goes.” Also, during the drawdown, Armstrong stopped referring to BTC as the potential “next world reserve currency.”

Meanwhile, CZ, in October 2025, said that “bitcoin will flip gold,” offering no specific timeline, while this week, as bitcoin jumped 27% in two weeks, he now claims that BTC will flip gold’s market capitalization “in the next bull run.” As for the $1 million per bitcoin, CZ also said it’ll happen much quicker than in 25 years, while previous reports this summer quoted the founder as saying that this might happen within 10 years.

Confidence Follows Bitcoin Price

However, CZ, who now says he avoids precise predictions but admits when he was wrong about them, is also known for retracting his public forecasts when the market changes. In January this year, when BTC was trying to reclaim $90,000, the co-founder of Binance was claiming that he had “a very strong feeling” about the “super cycle” in 2026, and that $200,000 was just a matter of time, although it wasn’t clear when it might happen. The confidence evaporated weeks later, when BTC started its decline below $70,000. In June, speaking with Coindesk, he blamed AI capital rotation, geopolitics, and the four-year cycle for why the super cycle didn’t materialize in 2026.

In May 2025, he told Farokh Radio that “this cycle” BTC would be in a $500,000-$1 million price range. Once again, a specific timeline wasn’t offered. However, directionally and over the longer term, CZ was right when he predicted in December 2020 that bitcoin investors would see a headline about the price “crashing” from $101,000 to $85,000. Back then, BTC was trading below $20,000 and reached $100,000 only four years later, in December 2024. Two months later, CZ recycled his previous post, joking that we’d also see bitcoin dropping from $1,001,000 to $985,000. “Save the tweet.” He was also correct when, in 2023, he called a bull run in 2025, using the post-halving logic. However, as mentioned above, this year, CZ blamed the same four-year cycle as one of the reasons why the super cycle didn’t materialize.

Crypto Asset Shovel Business

In either case, both businessmen, whose fortunes depend on whether people believe in bitcoin and other crypto assets, while not always accurate in their price predictions, have consistently expressed support for the long-term prospects of this volatile market. CZ emphasized that bitcoin was not dead when it was trading near $16,000 in November 2022, while Coinbase’s Armstrong said this past June that he’s still long bitcoin and that the market is simply going through one of many cycles.

Therefore, based on the above, you’d be in the same position if you listened to any bitcoin permabull, vaguely talking about the long-term potential of bitcoin — over the long term, so far, the price has been going up, with diminishing double-digit drawdowns along the way.

Also, these two powerful players in the crypto asset world are bound by their business and public positions, so we don’t know what exactly they know about the market and what they expect, given that they both have or have access to their own teams of analysts. Moreover, Armstrong is the CEO of a major listed company and is further restricted in what he can say in public.

Safe for Them, Not for You

Hence, with their comments mostly following the price, offering vague, long-term, permanently bullish predictions is a relatively safe strategy for both men that helps them (and the news media) benefit from the engagement, without having to be held accountable for anyone’s losses, or profit, for that matter.

Meanwhile, this month, Brian Armstrong said that there’s a “good chance” BTC will reach $100,000 by the end of this year. In four months, we’ll know whether bitcoin took that chance. In either case, learn Bitcoin and use well-argued predictions for your own research before you hit that “buy” or “sell” button, or do nothing. At the time of writing, bitcoin’s price range drifted between $81,000 and $76,900 over the last day.