Peter Schiff, one in all Bitcoin’s most vocal critics, took the stage on the Bitcoin 2025 convention on Thursday and didn’t maintain again. Throughout a fiery dialog with journalist Natalie Brunell on the Venetian Conference Middle in Las Vegas, the longtime gold advocate dismissed the Bitcoin
neighborhood as “an enormous cult” and mentioned the digital asset resembles a “memecoin.”
Schiff, who rose to prominence as a stockbroker and gold bug, has lengthy argued that bitcoin has no intrinsic worth. On stage, he reiterated that declare and pointed to world central banks nonetheless accumulating gold — not bitcoin — as proof that gold stays the true reserve asset.
“Each time I inform individuals to not purchase bitcoin, they purchase extra,” he quipped. “I’m most likely accountable for extra individuals proudly owning bitcoin than anybody else at this convention.”
His feedback got here in response to U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, who mentioned earlier that day that bitcoin had created “unparalleled wealth” during the last decade. Schiff pushed again, arguing that the wealth generated by the crypto asset doesn’t signify worth creation however quite a switch of wealth from latecomers to early adopters. “It’s a pyramid construction,” he mentioned, “not innovation.”
Whereas the group responded with a mixture of laughter and groans, Schiff stayed on message: bitcoin’s worth, he mentioned, is propelled by hype, not financial fundamentals. The jab stood in distinction to the remainder of the week’s festivities, the place many audio system celebrated bitcoin’s rising institutional acceptance and monetary footprint.
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