CZ vs. Peter Schiff: Binance Founder Argues Bitcoin Beats Gold on Verifiability, Utility and Scarcity

Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao and renowned economist Peter Schiff finally had their much-anticipated Bitcoin vs. gold debate. CZ made his case for BTC on grounds such as verifiability, utility, scarcity, and performance over the years.

CZ and Peter Schiff Debate On Bitcoin vs. Gold

During their debate at the Binance Blockchain Week, the Binance founder stated that they can always verify BTC transactions instantly in several ways, making it more verifiable than gold. To prove his point, CZ gave Schiff a gold bar, which Schiff couldn’t tell if was real or not.

Schiff then described Bitcoin as being worthless to him because one can’t do anything with it. He admitted that one can easily verify BTC transactions thanks to blockchain technology, but that at the end of the day, the flagship crypto is “nothing.”

The economist went on to note that there are industries that need gold, and companies need it, and that it is scarce, which makes it valuable. It is worth noting that the debate had earlier stemmed from the question of which of these assets had more value, which led Peter Schiff to challenge CZ to the debate back in October.

Addressing the comment on scarcity, CZ responded that how much gold there is in the world is uncertain, but everyone knows how much BTC there is and its exact location. The Binance founder added that gold’s utility in commercial value is low, but Bitcoin has utility with a whole network.

Which Has Better Utility: BTC Or Gold?

In terms of utility, CZ stated that before BTC and crypto came into the picture, payment of bills took much longer, but it has become much faster thanks to the top crypto exchange Binance and other firms that emerged thanks to crypto. The Binance founder declared that Bitcoin is still the best blockchain technology.

Still on utility, CZ noted that there are cards that allow one to use Bitcoin to make purchases. On the other hand, he questioned how many people use gold to buy and sell, suggesting it has less utility than BTC.

Schiff suggested that BTC transactions are not as straightforward as they seem. However, CZ stated that from the user’s perspective, they do not have to worry about the backend transactions as long as these payments go through.

On Bitcoin And Gold’s Performance Over The Years

The economist noted that gold has outperformed the Bitcoin price over the last four years. CZ then pointed out that the flagship crypto has outperformed the precious metal over the last eight years.

Notably, TradingView data show that BTC has outperformed gold over the last 5 years. The flagship crypto is up 377% during this period, while gold is up 127% in the same period.

CZ also noted that Bitcoin has outperformed gold year-over-year (YoY). However, gold has had a better 2025 than BTC. The former is up 59% year-to-date (YTD), while the latter is in the red after crashing below $100,000 last month.