Key Points
- Peter Schiff, renowned economist, questions Bitcoin’s status as a safe haven.
- Bitcoin’s price dropped amidst geopolitical tensions, contrasting gold’s rise.
Peter Schiff, a well-known economist and gold advocate, has once again criticized Bitcoin (BTC), the leading digital asset. He has questioned Bitcoin’s status as a “safe haven” following a recent decrease in the cryptocurrency’s value.
Schiff’s Comparison of Bitcoin and Gold
Schiff pointed out in his post that while upheavals in Central Iran and Israeli Airstrikes in Iraq and Syria caused stock futures to plummet and oil prices to spike, gold immediately surged by 1.6% to $2,416. Investors sought refuge from the volatility affecting other asset classes. However, Bitcoin’s value immediately dropped by 4%, down to $61,000.
Schiff believes that the increase in gold prices reaffirms its position as a dependable hedge against geopolitical threats and inflationary pressures. In contrast, he asserts that Bitcoin’s price drop highlights its susceptibility to geopolitical events and its status as a highly speculative asset rather than a haven. Despite being proven wrong on several occasions about his views on Bitcoin, Schiff has remained steadfast in his stance.
Gold Outperforms Silver
In a subsequent post, Schiff mentioned that although gold is trading at a new record high, it is being outperformed by silver. As a result, he recommended investors to purchase silver instead of gold 2.0. “The Bitcoin fad is over,” Schiff concluded.
Schiff has consistently voiced his concerns about Bitcoin’s intrinsic value and related investment vehicles such as Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs). He emphasizes that Bitcoin has no inherent value and is considered valuable only through communal belief and scarcity.
Schiff previously claimed that the price of Bitcoin could only increase to $10 million if the US dollar fails, similar to the German Papiermark’s failure in the 1920s. To give some background, Germany experienced a period of hyperinflation from 1921 to 1923 after World War I. The hyperinflation reached such extreme levels that the Papiermark, Germany’s currency at the time, quickly depreciated, making it nearly worthless.
Bitcoin’s Future
On Thursday, Bitcoin’s price fell to $59,600 due to growing geopolitical tension in the Middle East. The global crypto market cap also dropped 2.4% to approximately $2.36 trillion. However, Bitcoin has reclaimed its cycle high, trading at $65,000, a 6% increase within the last 24 hours.
With Bitcoin’s recent price surge, it can be inferred that Schiff’s post questioning the leading cryptocurrency’s safe haven status may have been premature. Moreover, with Bitcoin halving scheduled to commence soon, it is expected that Bitcoin’s price will climb even higher.
Data analysis provided by CryptoQuant reveals that crypto whales have accumulated more than 27,700 Bitcoin, worth over $1.7 billion in the past few days. This development occurs amid continuous outflows from Grayscale’s Bitcoin ETF (GBTC), indicating that investors remain confident in Bitcoin’s future potential.