Peter Schiff, one of cryptocurrency’s most outspoken critics, revealed he is launching a tokenized gold product that uses blockchain technology – the same infrastructure that powers Bitcoin – while maintaining his skepticism about the flagship cryptocurrency during a debate with Binance founder CZ on December 4.
Schiff embraces blockchain for gold
Schiff announced T-Gold.com, a platform where users can purchase physical gold and silver, stored in segregated vaults, and then record their holdings as blockchain tokens.
He acknowledged that tokenization makes gold “more transportable, more divisible and more fungible” and improves “all its monetary properties.”
“You’ve taken gold and now made it more transportable, more divisible and more fungable,” Schiff said.
“You have improved all the monetary properties, but you do not lose the most important property, which is that it is a store of value, because its value is the gold that the token represents.”
CZ immediately seized the recording. “What I hear is that tokenized gold is actually almost better than gold itself, in the sense that it is divisible, transferable, transportable and a medium of exchange,” he said.
Schiff confirmed: “As far as monetary purposes go, yes.”
The Case Against Bitcoin
Despite embracing blockchain technology, Schiff maintained his position that Bitcoin has no intrinsic value.
He argued that Bitcoin has fallen 40% against gold since its 2021 peak, claiming that when Bitcoin hit $69,000 four years ago, “it bought 37.2 ounces of gold. Today, and I just checked earlier, it buys 22.15 ounces.”
“What makes Bitcoin worthless, as far as I’m concerned, isn’t the fact that I can’t touch it, taste it, or smell it,” Schiff said. “It’s that you can’t do anything with it.”
He contrasted this with the industrial use of gold and its demand by central banks. “There are industries that need gold. They have to buy gold. They cannot replace copper or any other metal. There are things that only gold can do.”
Defense of CZ: utility beyond speculation
CZ responded with real-world use cases, including a user from Africa who reduced invoice payment time from three days to three minutes using crypto, accruing $1,000 in savings. He also showed off a Binance Visa card used by millions of people for crypto payments.
Schiff dismissed this as merely converting Bitcoin into fiat money rather than actual Bitcoin payments. “You sell Bitcoin to get money and then you use the money to buy goods and services, not the Bitcoin,” he argued.
The debate concluded with Schiff requesting Binance to list its tokenized gold token.
Final thoughts
- Bitcoin’s most prominent critic is launching a blockchain-based tokenized gold product, recognizing that blockchain technology enhances gold’s monetary properties.
- Schiff claims that Bitcoin is down 40% against gold since 2021, despite massive institutional adoption and ETF inflows.