 
 
Gold bug Peter Schiff and Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) have faced off in a widely anticipated debate over the utility of gold and Bitcoin (BTC). While CZ argued that BTC has improved the speed of transactions, Schiff poked holes in the “digital gold,” branding it as worthless.
CZ And Schiff Debate Over Bitcoin And Gold
Peter Schiff and CZ took to the stage at the Binance Blockchain Week to defend their positions on Bitcoin and gold. Right off the bat, the Binance founder argued in Bitcoin’s favor, noting that the asset has the advantage of verifiability over gold.
Described as the highlight of the event, CZ handed Schiff a gold bar and asked the critic to determine whether it was real. Schiff’s hesitation to respond drew cheers from the audience, while CZ pressed forward with the argument for Bitcoin’s utility in payments and cross-border transactions.
CZ buttressed his argument by pointing to the presence of cards supporting BTC payments and businesses receiving the asset as payment for goods and services. Despite Schiff’s arguments about Bitcoin’s perceived complexity, CZ countered that users do not have to worry about backend transactions as long as the payments are processed.
Furthermore, the Binance founder noted that the amount of gold on earth is uncertain, poking holes in Schiff’s claim of scarcity. Compared to gold, there will only ever be 21 million Bitcoins with watertight block mining rewards adding another layer to the asset’s scarcity.
To improve his argument, CZ noted that Bitcoin has significant value despite not having any physical properties, countering Schiff’s claim.
 
Peter Schiff’s Case For Gold
In his defense, Schiff argued in favor of gold, stating that its utility is undisputable. Schiff disclosed that several industries have utility for gold, and its scarcity inevitably drives prices up for the yellow metal.
He pointed to gold’s role as a reserve asset for central banks as another core utility for the asset while questioning Bitcoin’s use case. Furthermore, Schiff noted that gold does not “decay” or lose value over time, arguing that it is a better store of value than Bitcoin.
In 2025, gold ripped to new all-time highs, outperforming Bitcoin on the one-year charts. While Bitcoin had a meteoric start to the year, a sudden slump in October sent prices tumbling below the $100K mark.
“Gold’s price today represents the present value of all of the uses from now until the end of time,” said Schiff. “You don’t have that with other commodities that have a shelf life.”
He made a case for tokenized gold to solve traditional limitations of cross-border payments and divisibility issues.