Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has sparked controversy in the crypto community with his statement about renowned gold investor Peter Schiff’s new tokenized gold product. Schiff's new digital asset allows investors to trade gold-backed tokens on the blockchain. However, CZ emphasized that this approach is not “true gold on a chain.”
CZ, in a post on the X platform, said, “Tokenized gold isn't gold on a chain. It's simply based on a third party asking us to trust them to repay the gold in the future. So, it's a 'trust-me-bro' token.”
The renowned entrepreneur stated that “gold-backed digital assets” have historically failed to achieve sustained success, citing centralized trust issues as the primary reason. According to CZ, tokenized gold products contradict the decentralization principle offered by blockchain because users are forced to rely on intermediary institutions.
Peter Schiff, known for his past criticisms of Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market, argues that gold-backed digital goods could provide crypto with a “real basis of value.” CZ's comments, however, have once again brought decentralization and trust to the forefront of the crypto community.