Peter Schiff argues that tokenized gold can fulfill the roles of a medium of exchange, unit of account and store of value—functions he claims bitcoin fails to deliver.
The Safe Haven Debate Reignites Amid Market Volatility
Outspoken bitcoin critic and gold advocate Peter Schiff has reiterated his belief that gold—not cryptocurrency—is the only asset that makes sense to put on a blockchain. In a recent interview, Schiff argued that tokenized gold can serve as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value—functions he claims bitcoin ( BTC) promises but fails to deliver.
His comments came less than 48 hours after spot gold prices suffered a dramatic 8% plunge—the steepest single-session drop since 2013. The sudden reversal abruptly ended a three-week rally during which gold had surged more than 12%, fueled by investor flight to safety amid global economic uncertainty.
Notably, this rally unfolded in parallel with bitcoin’s sharp double-digit decline following its record-breaking all-time high on Oct. 6. The contrasting trajectories of the two assets reignited a long-standing debate among investors and analysts: which asset truly deserves the title of the ultimate safe haven.
However, despite the precious metal’s downturn—which reportedly wiped out over $2.4 trillion in gold’s market value—Schiff doubled down on his criticism of bitcoin and revealed plans to launch his own gold-backed token.
“I’m probably going to launch my own token at some point,” Schiff said. “I’m building out a platform on Schiff Gold right now where people will be able to buy gold.”
He clarified that the gold backing the tokens would be stored in vaults, with holders retaining the option to redeem the physical metal.
Reactions to Schiff’s announcement ranged from surprise to skepticism. Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) dismissed the idea as unoriginal, noting that similar gold tokens have failed in the past.
“Tokenizing gold is NOT ‘on-chain’ gold,” CZ wrote on X. “It’s tokenizing the trust that some third party will give you gold at a later date—even after management changes, maybe decades later, during a war, etc. It’s a ‘trust me bro’ token.”
In response, Schiff defended the custodial model, pointing out its long-standing reliability.
“People have trusted third parties to hold their gold for centuries,” he said. “Brinks has been storing gold for over 160 years and has never lost an ounce. Tokenized gold follows the same custodial concept as stablecoins. Does this mean you’re against that entire industry too?”
Source:Lovinghananews.com
