CZ and Peter Schiff Debated the Future of Money: Bitcoin vs Gold

• Binance Blockchain Week 2025 is taking place in Dubai.
• The main event was a discussion about bitcoin and tokenized gold between CZ and Peter Schiff.
• The latter defended gold, while CZ defended the first cryptocurrency.

One of the most anticipated discussions of the event took place during Binance Blockchain Week 2025 in Dubai — a debate between Changpeng Zhao (CZ), founder of Binance and Giggle Academy, and Peter Schiff, economist and founder of Euro Pacific Asset Management and Schiff Gold. This was reported by the Incrypted team that attended the event.

The central question was the dilemma currently being discussed by investors and financial institutions around the world: what is the future of “stable money” — bitcoin or tokenized gold?

Schiff, a prominent critic of bitcoin, has consistently defended the value of gold, enhanced by tokenisation. He noted:

He also added that digital technology makes the asset more convenient to use:

Schiff emphasised the industrial value of the metal:

In response, CZ highlighted the benefits of bitcoin as a decentralized digital currency. He noted:

Zhao also noted the scale of the infrastructure that has grown around the asset:

Another thesis of CZ concerned the value of intangible digital products:

The discussion demonstrated a key difference of opinion: Schiff considers bitcoin to be an asset without collateral, based on trust, while CZ emphasizes its independence from intermediaries and global availability.

However, when CZ handed Schiff a gold bar and asked him to authenticate it, he admitted that he could not do so without an expert. CZ pointed out that this is where the key difference from bitcoin comes in — its authenticity can be verified instantly and without intermediaries.

Although Schiff criticizes cryptocurrency bills and predicts the collapse of the cryptocurrency sector, he wrote a satirical message on his birthday this year asking for bitcoin to be added to his “strategic reserve.”