Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has pushed back against Peter Schiff’s upcoming tokenized gold venture, arguing that digital gold tokens cannot match Bitcoin’s decentralized nature.
In an Oct. 23 post, CZ clarified that tokenized gold is merely an IOU representation of physical gold to true on-chain ownership. It’s tokenizing that you trust some third party will give you gold at some later date, maybe decades later, during a war, etc. It’s a ‘trust me bro’ token, he wrote.
CZ emphasized that these products rely on centralized entities to store and redeem gold, contradicting one of crypto’s key principles: eliminating the need for middlemen or custodians.
Schiff’s tokenized gold plan
In a recent Crypto Tengen interview, gold advocate and Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff revealed plans for a tokenized gold product he claims could rival Bitcoin.
According to Schiff, the asset to be offered via his platform SchiffGold will allow users to buy and store physical gold in a vault, while enabling low-cost, near-instant digital transfers of ownership or redemption for real gold.
Because gold will maintain its purchasing power, it makes sense to put gold on a blockchain, Schiff said. It will do all the things Bitcoin promises but can never do.
Market movements and CZ’s bold prediction
Gold has recently suffered a sharp market correction, falling from $4,381 to $4,115, erasing around $2 trillion in market cap before stabilizing at $4,150. Meanwhile, Bitcoin (BTC) has rallied 0.95% in the past 24 hours, rebounding to $109,287 after reclaiming the $110,000 level earlier this week.
CZ remains bullish, predicting that Bitcoin will eventually surpass gold’s $28.5 trillion market cap though he admitted it may take time. Bitcoin currently holds $2.18 trillion, ranking eighth among global assets.
Given Bitcoin’s finite supply of 19.93 million, CZ noted that it would need to reach approximately $1.5 million per BTC to overtake gold. Despite the gap, Bitcoin’s rise to a trillion-dollar asset in just six years underscores its unmatched growth trajectory.