"I've been saying for 20 years that we will see the petrodollar system end. And now, we can say there has been an end to that system," says Willem Middelkoop, founder of the Commodity Discovery Fund and bestselling author of The Big Reset: War on Gold and the Financial Endgame. "The real question is, 'Is this start of the petroyuan system?'," he says to Daniela Cambone at the 2023 Swiss Mining Institute conference in Zurich. "The worst scenario for the U.S. is when Russia teams up with China and possibly Iran. They know they are playing a dangerous game [with] these countries," Middelkoop asserts. "It's quite clear that China is now being much more aggressive and negative about the U.S. compared to the '90s and 2000s," he continues. "A special new BRICS reserve currency could be the absolute nail in the coffin and it could be backed by a basket of commodities beyond just gold," Middelkoop predicts. "Your savings aren't safe in a bank account because it is now owned by the bank, and we've seen the repercussions of this in the past weeks with Silicon Valley Bank," he says. "It's why regulators had to guarantee all deposits... and that's endgame stuff," Middelkoop argues. "Gold will cross $2,000 and then that level will become support instead of resistance. And that's when the major bull market will start," he concludes.