Gold bug and Euro Pacific Capital CEO Peter Schiff, a well-known bitcoin bear who contends that bitcoin’s value may drop to zero, has admitted the flagship cryptocurrency’s price could hit $100,000 in the future, now that it has surpassed the $50,000 mark.
In a tweet, Schiff admitted that a move to $100,000 “can’t be ruled out,” but warned his followers that a move down to zero cannot be ruled out either since a “permanent move down to zero is inevitable.”
Now that #Bitcoin has hit $50,000 I must admit that a move up to $100,000 can't be ruled out. However a move down to zero can't be ruled out either. While a temporary move up to $100K is possible, a permanent move down to zero is inevitable. If you don't want to gamble buy #gold.
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) February 16, 2021
The tweet was met with skepticism from influential figures in the cryptocurrency space who pointed out this may have been the first time the gold bug said anything bullish about the flagship cryptocurrency, even though he tried to promote gold in his tweet either way.
Schiff has last year said Bitcoin will “collapse” after admitting he likes riling up the cryptocurrency community on Twitter. The gold bug predicted back in August 2019 that the price of bitcoin would “never” hit $50,000, responding to analyst Tom Lee in a discussion about Schiff’s prediction gold would hit $5,000 in two years.
Gold is currently trading at $1,794, down from a high above $2,000 seen last year, while bitcoin moved from $11,000 in August 2019 to a new all-time high above $50,000 this week.
On Tuesday, Schiff reacted to one of his tweets from 2019 (which claimed that Bitcoin’s price would never reach $50,000), and admitted that he had made a mistake.
Ok, I got that one wrong. Now let's see how long it stays above $50, or how many are smart enough to sell it up here.
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) February 16, 2021
The gold bug, in separate tweets, also claimed that a financial asset is in a bubble “when its price has no relationship to its underlying present value or reasonable expectation of its future value,” and claimed bitcoin is the “biggest bubble of them all.”
Late last year, as the price of BTC moved up steadily from $11,000 in October, Schiff denied that companies were selling their positions in gold to increase their exposure to cryptocurrency, comparing reports suggesting companies were dropping gold to a “gimmick” of bitcoin marketing.
The gold bug’s son, Spencer Schiff, has however shown he is pro-bitcoin and argued that BTC is “sound money” while claiming his dad’s understanding of money is “flawed.”
