Recently, famous gold bug and Bitcoin skeptic Peter Schiff complained to CNBC for focusing more on Bitcoin than gold.
Schiff is the CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, a full-service, registered broker/dealer specializing in foreign markets and securities, and founder and Chairman of SchiffGold, a full-service, discount precious metals dealer. He is also a man who is extremely bullish on gold, bearish on the U.S. dollar, and highly skeptical about Bitcoin.
It is true that in the past few weeks Bitcoin has been sounding very bullish on Bitcoin and hyping Bitcoin’s 2020 rally. Here are a couple of examples from Twitter:
Bitcoin to the moon? The cryptocurrency is taking off again! pic.twitter.com/NlrB2BP1uT
— CNBC's Fast Money (@CNBCFastMoney) January 14, 2020
Bitcoin up more than 30% this year and Morgan Creek Capital's @MarkYusko says this is why the red hot rally is just getting started $BTC pic.twitter.com/L6a9nrEWt7
— CNBC's Fast Money (@CNBCFastMoney) February 19, 2020
Here is the tweet Schiff sent out on Wednesday (February 19):
CNBC is ignoring the rise in the price of gold and pumping Bitcoin instead. @CNBCFastMoney in particular continuously allows biased guests to tout Bitcoin. However unlike when they had me on to discuss gold, these ridiculous, completely self-serving comments go unchallenged.
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) February 19, 2020
Schiff is also angry that CNBC is not impressed by predictions (such as that from Citibank) that the gold price could reach $2000 in the next 12-24 months for a gain of 25% since this figure is too small to get today’s investors excited:
A CNBC anchor responded to Citi's call that #gold will hit 2K in the next 12-24 months by dismiss the potential as being too low a return to matter. That's a 25% gain in less than 2 years! In contrast a 2-year Treasury yields just 1.4%, and the S&P yields 1.7%. New low for CNBC!
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) February 19, 2020
Now, it is true that on Friday (February 21), the price of gold in U.S. dollars went above $1640, setting a new seven-year high. However, although CNBC might be making Schiff unhappy by focusing more on gold than Bitcoin during the past few weeks/months, what they are doing makes sense since Bitcoin, which many people also think of as a store-of-value, has been performing much better than gold.
Gold’s return-on-investment (ROI) figures (vs USD) for the past 30-day, year-to-date, six-month, and one-year, and five-year periods are approximately +4.98%, +8.09%, +7.38%, +23.81, and +36.80.
In contrast, Bitcoin’s ROI figures for the same periods are +17.58%, +37.60%, -2.84%, +137.59%, and +4106.80%.
Earlier on Wednesday (February 19), the same day that Schiff complained about CNBC “pumping Bitcoin” instead of gold, he called Bitcoin “a pyramid scheme” since, in his view, Bitcoin — unlike gold — has never worked as a means of payment and will never do so:
The fake news spread by #Bitcoin pumpers is amazing. I acknowledged the past rise in the price of Bitcoin merely to point out that those gains did not prove my earlier comments about Bitcoin's flaws as money invalid. A pyramid scheme has no place in an investment portfolio.
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) February 19, 2020
This promoted Brendan Blumer, Co-Founder and CEO of Block.one (the company that developed the EOSIO protocol on which the EOS platform is based), agreed with Schiff that Bitcoin is not money in the sense it does not function well as a means of payment, but disagreed with Schiff’s view that Bitcoin should be dismissed as investable asset (because Blumer thinks that over the next two decades Bitcoin will outperform gold as a store of value):
#Bitcoin isn’t money and never will be – its the next generation of #gold and will overtake it in aggregate value the next two decades. Local currencies are made for spending and are tax optimized for it. Do you spend your gold at the supermarket? Your equities?
— Brendan Blumer (@BrendanBlumer) February 19, 2020
Blumer also took exception to Schiff calling Bitcoin a pyramid scheme:
Calling #Bitcoin a ponzi when its freed so many people from oppressively deflating currencies, discriminating banking cartels, and assets lacking provably finite integrity, is offensive not only to Bitcoin holders but also to #gold holders. We’re in the same boat and share values
— Brendan Blumer (@BrendanBlumer) February 19, 2020
Of course, it is also important to mention that Bitcoin’s next/third block mining reward halving is expected to take place in May 2020, and many people in the crypto space seem to believe that the halving has not been priced-in and expect this event to have a major positive impact on the price of Bitcoin either in the up to the halving or in the months following the halving.
For example, Changpen Zhao (aka “CZ”), Co-Founder and CEO of Binance, said during an interview on February 19 with BLOCKTV Senior Anchor Yael Lavy that in his view the halving has not been priced in:
“I personally believe the halving has not been priced in.”
Don't miss @cz_binance discuss @binance future, China and the impact of Coronavirus and why he is positive on the price of #Bitcoin.
See must watch in-depth interview at: https://t.co/o9xb0D0Mqp pic.twitter.com/1BTp9XXtSj
— BLOCKTV (@BLOCKTVnews) February 19, 2020
And earlier today, CZ had more to say about the next Bitcoin halving:
History may not predict the future, and correlation does not prove causation.
Here are just 2 charts around the previous #bitcoin halving. Watch what happens AFTER halving. Markets are inefficient, at least, historically.
Just data, draw your own conclusions. pic.twitter.com/AwChmAGvrK
— CZ Binance 🔶🔶🔶 (@cz_binance) February 23, 2020
Featured Image by “WorldSpectrum” via Pixabay.com
