Peter Schiff Calls For A Return Back To Gold As He Launches Tokenized Gold

In one of the most ironic statements made this year, long-time Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff has just started a campaign to draw people to tokenise gold at a time when gold is experiencing a 25% trillion plunge in its value this week.

In his interview on the ThreadGuy podcast, Schiff announced his plans to launch his own tokenized gold product, where he claimed users would be able to buy and store gold in a vault via an app. Users would also be able to transfer ownership through a blockchain, or redeem it for physical gold.

Schiff used the imminent fall of bitcoin for why people should be jumping on the gold bandwagon, stressing that Bitcoin has no intrinsic value and will eventually "go to zero." He also called Bitcoin a gigantic pump-and-dump, driven by early adopter cashing out at the expense of newer investors.

"I still think it's going to zero, what I am underestimating was the gullibility of the public and the marketing savvy of those promoting it."

Schiff also claims that the world is entering another "debt crisis", one that would surpass the financial crisis in 2008. He claimed that this debt crisis would not only cause hyperinflation, but it will also trigger the collapse of US treasury bonds and gold prices will soar beyond $4,000 per ounce. The dollar’s dominance, he said, is ending — with the world inevitably returning to a gold-based monetary system.

Gold’s Rough Week Adds to the Irony

Gold’s market performance, however, seems to undercut Schiff’s timing. The metal lost about 8% in just two days — a staggering $2.5 trillion wipeout in total market cap, according to The Kobeissi Letter. The sell-off followed a rapid rally earlier in the year that saw prices climb 60% amid inflation fears and global instability.

Despite Schiff’s insistence that the drop is temporary, the moment underscores how volatile even “safe haven” assets can be. For many investors, that volatility only reinforces the case for Bitcoin — an asset with fixed supply, global liquidity, and no reliance on vaults or custodians.

Schiff's campaign has drawn skepticism, including CZ who calls tokenised gold a "trust me bro" asset that doesn’t represent true on-chain ownership but rather something that relies on a mutual promise.

“It’s tokenizing that you trust some third party will give you gold at some later date — even after their management changes, maybe decades later, during a war.”

CZ’s comments highlight a broader skepticism among crypto purists toward asset-backed tokens. Unlike decentralized cryptocurrencies, tokenized commodities like Schiff’s depend entirely on the credibility of their custodians — the exact kind of middleman crypto was designed to remove.

While Schiff insists his gold system offers transparency and utility, critics say it simply rebrands centralized trust in a digital wrapper. For CZ, the idea runs counter to everything blockchain stands for: autonomy, verifiability, and self-custody.

Many in the crypto community have also pointed out the hypocracy of how a self-proclaimed “enemy of Bitcoin” is now embracing blockchain technology to modernize the very asset he claims will replace crypto — and doing so at a time when gold has suffered its steepest two-day drop since 2013.

Gold May Glitter, But Bitcoin Still Shines Brighter

Schiff’s tokenized gold experiment is more than ironic — it’s emblematic of a broader shift. Even the most hardened gold advocates are now acknowledging that blockchain technology is here to stay. But while tokenization may modernize gold, it doesn’t change its core limitation: it still relies on trust, storage, and intermediaries.

Bitcoin, by contrast, doesn’t ask for permission — or forgiveness. It runs 24/7, audits itself every ten minutes, and exists beyond borders and politics. Gold may continue to shine in vaults, but Bitcoin continues to dominate in code. And for an asset born to replace “trust me bro” promises, that might be the ultimate proof of resilience.