The heated debate between Peter Schiff and CZ about Bitcoin. Photo: Youtube
Rare point of consensus
Veteran gold critic Peter Schiff once again made headlines at the ongoing Binance Blockchain Week in Dubai, in a live debate with Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) , revolving around Bitcoin’s legitimacy, intrinsic value, and ability to create real economic value.
JUST IN: Binance Founder CZ applauds Peter Schiff how #Bitcoin is better than gold. pic.twitter.com/z5ygW62FD8
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) December 4, 2025
This is a rare encounter between two of the most polarizing figures in the digital asset world.
Before the controversy broke out, Schiff introduced the TGold platform that allows investors to hold gold on custody and in the future can withdraw it in the form of metal or Token.
CZ agrees that crypto gold has an advantage over physical gold in its Chia , transferability, and global circulation.
That was also the only moment of consensus at the conversation!
Bitcoin is not backed by anything?
Facing CZ on stage, Schiff was adamant that Bitcoin is not an asset but simply a “ zero-sum game ” of value transfer between market participants, which game theory and economics describe as a situation where one player’s gain equals the other players’ loss.
He asserted that even if Bitcoin reaches $90,000-$92,000, many people will lose money without realizing it until they sell. “We have 20 million Bitcoins that didn’t exist 15 years ago, but the world is not better off because of their existence. No real wealth is created,” he said.
He went further in his comparison: “Bitcoin buys 40% less gold than it did four years ago, regardless of ETFs, corporate accumulation, or market fever.” According to Schiff, this is a testament to declining demand and BTC ’s failure as a store of value.
How does CZ counterattack?
Countering the economist, CZ used market adoption, and even a physical gold bar, to demonstrate the superiority of decentralized networks.
In a video of the exchange that went viral on social media, CZ suddenly handed Schiff a 1kg gold bar and asked: “Is this gold bar real or fake?”Schiff's reply, “I don't know,” drew laughter from the audience.CZ continued: “With Bitcoin, we know exactly how much it is and where it is. If I send you 1 BTC, the authenticity and finality are absolutely transparent.”
At this point, CZ commented that Schiff's tokenized gold product is an "empty promise" and cannot be verified. Because according to him, tokenized gold still depends on a central custodian. If the issuer goes bankrupt or has problems, users' ownership could be at risk, completely contrary to the decentralized and censorship-resistant nature of Bitcoin.
Schiff also asserted that Bitcoin does not fulfill the monetary function because no goods or services are priced in BTC, all transactions end in fiat. In response, CZ held up the Binance Card and said: “From the user’s perspective, they swipe the card and crypto is deducted, that is crypto payment.”
CZ dismisses the notion that Bitcoin is just a transfer of value from person to person by pointing to long-term data: from fractions of a penny to tens of thousands of dollars, and countless people have created real wealth thanks to BTC. He tells the story of a user in Africa who reduced the time it took to pay bills from 3 days to 3 minutes thanks to crypto and saved his first $1,000.
The debate ended with two completely opposite visions . While CZ predicted that “Bitcoin will surpass gold even further”, Schiff asserted that the demand for gold will increase sharply and eventually overwhelm the entire crypto market.
Experts overturn the argument
Most experts say the gold-worshipper's argument does not reflect how modern assets form value.
Since today’s assets are not necessarily physical, then by Mr. Schiff’s logic, wouldn’t fiat currencies, domain names, software, AI models, or cloud infrastructure—the pillars of the modern economy—also create value?
Bitcoin in practice:
1/ Create new economic functions
- Cross-border payments without banks;
- Censorship resistant assets;
- Collateral on DeFi protocols and traditional institutional platforms.
2/ Forming a completely new type of asset
- A network that can transfer Capital globally using only data, instantly verified by mathematics, without intermediaries, it is an asset class that has never existed in human history.
- If Bitcoin were just a zero-sum game, it wouldn't be able to become the infrastructure for billions of dollars in daily transactions.
3/ Schiff is based on the assumption that Bitcoin will collapse
- The argument that “people just don't realize they're losing money” is a predictive assumption, not an economic fact.
- If BTC continues to be accumulated by ETFs, corporate treasuries, banks or even governments, this assumption becomes even less convincing.
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