Peter Schiff, a long-time critic of Bitcoin (BTC) and advocate for gold, has predicted that the cryptocurrency will crash.
This comes as the precious metal achieves new highs, with its price soaring past the $4,000 mark.
Schiff Says Gold Could Rug BTC
The economist said on X that Wall Street’s enthusiasm for crypto had climbed to unsustainable levels. He suggested that with sentiment becoming excessively bullish, digital assets might find it hard to push higher.
“It’s very likely that Bitcoin and everything crypto are about to be rugged by gold,” read the post.
He added that as the metal tops $4,000, it’s likely that BTC will sell off, taking the rest of crypto with it.
The warning comes as Bitcoin’s price fell to around $121,600 on October 8, marking a decline of more than 3% from its recent all-time high above $126,000 reached at the start of the week. Schiff maintains that the leading cryptocurrency’s current surge is merely a “bear market rally,” asserting that it won’t escape that label until it reaches a new record when measured against gold. So far this year, the traditional safe-haven asset has outperformed its digital counterpart by nearly 17%.
The Bitcoin critic has previously claimed that the cryptocurrency is “not living up to its hype” as digital gold. He explained that this is because it has fallen 20% against the metal since its August peak, a drop he said puts it in bear market territory.
Crypto Community Pushes Back Against Remarks
However, the X crypto community is not in agreement with Schiff’s latest remarks. Tech entrepreneur Brian Shuster challenged Schiff’s argument, asking if it was “opposite day.” He suggested that it was actually gold, not crypto, that could be outperformed, questioning how Wall Street could be so bullish on the former when the latter’s smaller market cap gives it far more room to grow.
The gold advocate countered that only a small percentage of investors are buying it, adding that Bitcoin and other crypto investments remain far more common.
Elsewhere, Schiff predicted that the metal’s price would skyrocket to $100,000 per ounce in the future. In an interview with The Lead-Lag Report, he stated, “If gold can go from $20 an ounce to $2,600 an ounce, it can go from $2,600 to $26,000, or to $100,000.” The economist further explained that this forecast is based on historical price movements and the declining value of the U.S. dollar.