Marathon Fusion Claims Mercury Can Be Transmuted into Gold via Neutron‑Induced Fusion
Current overview (not historical)
Marathon Fusion has announced that a neutron‑induced fusion process can convert mercury‑198 into the stable isotope gold‑197. According to the company’s research paper, high‑energy neutrons bombard mercury‑198, creating a radioactive intermediate that, after a storage period of just over ten years, decays into gold‑197. The company stresses that the process is still theoretical and has not yet been demonstrated at a commercial scale. The claim has attracted attention in the crypto community, with Cointelegraph reporting on the potential implications for Bitcoin’s perceived “infinite mint bug.” However, no evidence of a viable, scalable production method has emerged, and the technology remains in the experimental stage.
Written with AI from the reporting · updated 10/30/2026
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- 1Unclassified fact stationOct 30, 21:58single sourcereport-time onlyrevised
Marathon Fusion声称核聚变将汞转化为金
Read original source ↗ CointelegraphReplay this moment in the explorerEvidence & revisions · 1 source records
- Subject：
- Marathon Fusion
- Action：
- 声称通过核聚变反应将汞转化为稳定金
- Object：
- 汞-198
- Occurred (fact side)：
- not recorded
- Published (valid side)：
- Oct 30, 21:30
- First seen (known side)：
- Oct 30, 21:58
Fact stationSingle source · one-sided claimRevisedReport-time onlyCopy may have been revised later; time replay is bounded. Layer labels group reading only, not causation between layers.
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- CointelegraphRelated fact: single sourceFact occurrence time unverifiedSource report revisedFusion Startup Marathon Fusion Claims It Can Turn Mercury into Gold via Nuclear Transmutation
Report first recorded Oct 30, 21:58
Marathon Fusion, a U.S. fusion company, announced that high‑energy neutrons generated in a deuterium‑tritium fusion reaction can irradiate mercury‑198, producing a radioactive intermediate that decays into stable gold‑197. The company’s research paper reports a production rate ten times higher than CERN’s record, though the actual yields remain microscopic—still only microscopic quantities today, with a target of milligram‑scale output by 2027. Marathon’s CEO, Kyle Schiller, says the technology could attract jewelers and serve as a store of value, but industry experts like Nikos Kavalis of Metals Focus note that the process is far from commercially viable and that gold miners will likely continue to operate for the foreseeable future. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong compared the potential “net‑new gold” to lab‑grown diamonds, emphasizing that Bitcoin’s capped supply of 21 million coins cannot be increased by such a process.
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