Renowned advocate of gold, Peter Schiff, has expressed skepticism towards market analysts who have set a target price of $100,000 for Bitcoin during the current bull market. Schiff also took the opportunity to criticize spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and the demand they generate in the market. As a well-known critic of Bitcoin, Schiff often questions its value and real-world applications. He called out analysts who believe that the price of BTC could exceed $100,000 due to increased demand from spot BTC ETFs.
In a post on April 16, Schiff referred to the bearish performance of key Bitcoin-related equities, including Coinbase, MicroStrategy, Galaxy Digital, and other crypto-linked stocks. He questioned why the high demand for BTC is not reflected in the stock prices of these companies. Schiff pointed out that Coinbase is down 21%, Galaxy Digital is down 26%, MicroStrategy is down 33%, and several Bitcoin mining stocks have experienced double-digit declines.
However, Schiff did not provide a specific timeframe for these losses, despite the fact that most Bitcoin and crypto-linked stocks have outperformed traditional market stocks by a significant margin since the beginning of 2024. It is only in the past week that many of these stocks have experienced a downturn due to bearish momentum in the crypto market.
This bearish trend in the crypto market is not surprising, as market analysts have explained that BTC has historically experienced a dip before halving and gains momentum after halving. The Bitcoin halving is scheduled to take place later this week.
Schiff’s comments did not go unnoticed, and several Bitcoin supporters responded to his post by debunking his selective data. One user pointed out that MicroStrategy stocks have increased by 300% year-on-year (YoY).
Others called him out for cherry-picking data and compared the performance of Bitcoin to gold to highlight the difference in growth between the two assets. While gold has reached new all-time highs in the second quarter of 2024, its increase pales in comparison to the rise of BTC during the same period. Bitcoin proponents Dan Held and Willy Woo also reminded Schiff how he missed the opportunity to buy BTC in 2013 when it was trading at around $1,000.
In related news, the CEO of Trezor, a leading Bitcoin hardware wallet provider, warned that the introduction of Bitcoin ETFs has made Coinbase a target for hackers and governments.
Peter Schiff expresses doubts about the demand for a Bitcoin ETF and a $100K price target for BTC.