This week, a leading economist predicted a major paradigm shift, as Carl Weinberg, chief economist and managing director at High Frequency Economics told CNBC that China will "compel" Saudi Arabia to abandon the petrodollar, and instead, begin trading oil in yuan—a move he says is likely to precipitate the rest of the oil market following suit and abandoning the U.S. dollar as the global reserve currency.

Weinberg noted that China is poised to clearly dominate the global landscape in terms of oil demand since surpassing the U.S. as the "biggest oil importer on the planet," adding that Saudi Arabia will "pay attention to this because even as much as one or two years from now, Chinese demand will dwarf U.S. demand."

"I believe that yuan pricing of oil is coming and as soon as the Saudis move to accept it—as the Chinese will compel them to do—then the rest of the oil market will move along with them," Weinberg said.