Ever heard that saying, “all that shimmers is not gold?” Well, if that sparkle is a reflection of the value rather than a tangible glow, the shine may be from Bitcoin and not gold.
Peter Schiff, the poster-boy for the ‘invest in gold’ bandwagon and now at the epicenter of the infamous gold versus Bitcoin debate, seems to be turning into a fan of the king coin. Even though he has unequivocally disavowed the long-term prospects of cryptocurrency as a store of value, its inherent investment capabilities, coupled with the skyrocketing price of Bitcoin, may be luring him.
Following Schiff’s admission that he does, in fact, own Bitcoin, the crypto-community decided to help out. First to try and flip Schiff was Anthony Pompliano, Co-founder of Morgan Creek Digital, who asked the former for his BTC wallet address, vowing to send the Bitcoin basher some Bitcoin.
“What is your BTC wallet address?
I’ll send you $100 more of Bitcoin”— Pomp ? (@APompliano) July 5, 2019
With growing anticipation of what became of the generous donation from Pompliano and others within the community, Schiff finally revealed all in his recent podcast.
Schiff, retrospectively stated that he “wished” he had purchased Bitcoin when it was still trading under $100, but not to hodl it or adhere to its decentralized principles, but rather to ‘sell it, anywhere along the way.’ He believes that this ‘buy the Bitcoin dip’ sentiment is not isolated to him alone, with Warren Buffett and Nouriel Roubini, two known crypto-critics, possibly also sharing the same sentiment, albeit not publicly.
The Bitcoin-basher added that he also holds some amount of Bitcoin Cash and Ether. Additionally, the crypto-tooth fairy that gave Schiff his first Bitcoin wealth was interestingly, Erik Voorhees, CEO of Shapeshift, following a forum featuring the two.
From initially amassing just about $80 worth of Bitcoin, the amount has since skyrocketed to $2,140, a 2575 percent increase since he let the world know about his BTC address. However, not taking any names, Schiff mentioned that there was no transaction worth more than $25, adding that “the guy” who pledged to send $100, failed to do so, possibly referencing Pomp’s promise.
As Schiff detailed the generosity of the cryptocurrency community, it should be noted that this $2,000 figure was not in one large inflow. Instead, it was in small dollar amounts showing the collective nature of the community.
In a possibly slip up, or a Freudian slip, Schiff also compared the top cryptocurrency in the market to ‘money.’
“I don’t even know how to reject it, even if I wanted to, the money just comes in, or the Bitcoin, rather, just comes in.”
Finding his feet in this new-found Bitcoin-neutral, if not ‘Bitcoin-not so bad’ attitude, he continued to praise the concept of digital assets,
“I think it is kind of cool that you can send it [Bitcoin] very quickly. I’ve always admitted that, that is one of the good features of Bitcoin, that if I’ve got it and I want to give it to somebody, I can very easily send it.”
However, his change of tune was short-lived as immediately after the above statement, he stated, “The problem is what I’m sending has no value.” Further, he equated Bitcoin’s price to be “the function of perception and demand.”
The whole debate around Bitcoin and its critics flipping from critics to advocates is a case of marketing Bitcoin, claimed Schiff. It starts out with small donations from the masses, then the rumour-mill grows stating thing like ‘the Bitcoin basher is coming around,’ and this pumps up the prices. He explained,
“Bitcoin is being marketed as a disruptor of the gold market. Bitcoin is supposed to derive its value from taking market share from gold. So, it’s not just about talking about why Bitcoin is great, you have to trash gold too because you have to convince people to buy Bitcoin, instead of gold.”
Not sure if he’s going to hodl or sell the Bitcoins, Schiff is still mulling on the prospects. However’s he’s not one to miss out on an investment opportunity, and he’ll be hoping that the community’s generosity would culminate into him getting one full Bitcoin.
Oh, Peter Schiff, you sly dog.
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