Bitcoin skeptic Peter Schiff pitches onchain gold tokenization app, CZ calls it a ‘trust-me-bro’ token

Longtime gold advocate and bitcoin skeptic Peter Schiff is developing a blockchain-based product of his own.

In a recent interview with crypto creator Michael Jerome, who goes by the moniker "Threadguy," Schiff said his company, Schiff Gold, is building an app that will let users buy vaulted metal, tokenize ownership, and transfer it "instantly and verifiably" for payments or redemptions.

Schiff described the system as a way to "carry all your gold around in your phone," enabling users to spend fractions through a debit card or redeem for coins. He argued that gold is "the one thing that actually makes sense to put on a blockchain," framing tokenization as a bridge between traditional stores of value and digital payments.

Binance founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, who earlier today received a presidential pardon from Donald Trump, pushed back on X, arguing that tokenized gold isn't truly onchain metal but a promise dependent on middlemen.

"It’s tokenizing that you trust some third party will give you gold later," Zhao wrote . "It's a 'trust-me-bro' token."

Schiff countered that intermediaries are a normal feature of markets, not a flaw. "Counterparties are part of capitalism," he said, pointing to vault providers like Brinks as examples of longstanding custodianship that underpins the gold industry.

Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Balchunas noted that the structure already exists in traditional finance.

"Congratulations, you just invented an ETF," he quipped , citing $AAAU and $OUNZ — gold-backed funds that already allow retail investors to redeem for physical metal. Still, Balchunas added, "99% of people don’t care; they just want to redeem for cash."

Debates aside, tokenized gold assets are continuing to reach new milestones.

The sector's market cap, led by market leaders Tether Gold and PAX Gold, climbed to an all-time high of $4.03 billion on Monday as spot gold hit a record $4,360 per troy ounce, according to The Block's price data . Gold has since slipped back , trading near $4,160 today.