{"id":4520,"date":"2020-03-14T11:33:04","date_gmt":"2020-03-14T15:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/?p=4520"},"modified":"2020-04-17T14:23:15","modified_gmt":"2020-04-17T18:23:15","slug":"peter-schiffs-epic-fail-bitcoin-hodlers-nailed-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/2020\/03\/14\/peter-schiffs-epic-fail-bitcoin-hodlers-nailed-it","title":{"rendered":"Peter Schiff&#8217;s Epic Fail \u2014 Bitcoin Hodlers Nailed It"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4089\" src=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Epic-Fail.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Epic-Fail.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Epic-Fail-300x38.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Epic-Fail-770x96.jpg 770w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Epic-Fail-1024x128.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Epic-Fail-500x63.jpg 500w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Epic-Fail-293x37.jpg 293w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><b>Schiff-ting Sands<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As markets tumbled, goldbug anti-Bitcoiner Peter Schiff repeatedly <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/bitcoin-suckers-are-wrong-about-safe-haven-status-peter-schiff\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">slammed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the crypto community for advancing the narrative of Bitcoin as a store-of-value.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Bitcoin promoters claim <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Bitcoin?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Bitcoin<\/a> has proven itself to be superior to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/gold?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#gold<\/a> as a safe haven and store of value. This is nonsense. Bitcoin hasn&#8217;t been around long enough to prove anything other than P.T Barnum right. There&#8217;s a sucker born every minute and many of them own Bitcoin.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PeterSchiff\/status\/1232339689824309250?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 25, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And this week, the notorious antagonist got what he wanted: a crypto bloodbath of epic proportions. He apparently reveled in the havoc wreaked on crypto markets:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">If any institutional money ever actually went into <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Bitcoin?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Bitcoin<\/a> it&#8217;s about to come out, never to return. Bitcoin has finally proven conclusively that it&#8217;s neither a store of value, a safe haven, nor a non-correlated asset. The Bitcoin chain letter has finally run out of links!<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PeterSchiff\/status\/1237793435794497538?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 11, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What explains why other people\u2019s misery can be so satisfying for Schiff, whose obsession with gold puts him on par with <a href=\"https:\/\/fanlore.org\/wiki\/Gold_Sickness\">Thorin<\/a>, son of Thr\u00e1in, son of Thr\u00f3r? <\/span><\/p>\n<p>Is it schadenfreude \u2014 literally, delighting in other&#8217;s misfortune? Or is it simply an attempt to divert attention from his own numerous failings as a prognosticator?<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You see, it turns out the crypto-naysayer has left an embarrassing string of bad predictions in his wake. For those kinds of people, there is a premium on occasionally being right.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>Let\u2019s Take A Trip Down Memory Lane\u2026<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Late in 2012 the Schiff of Wall Street predicted gold <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/id\/49550053\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">would reach $5,000<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> an ounce within two years due to excessively easy monetary policy. It <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kitco.com\/charts\/livegold.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">lingered<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> this week in the wake of coronavirus fears\u2026 at around $1,530.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oops!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-4521 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Gold-3.14.20-1024x578.png\" alt=\"Peter Schiff gets it wrong\" width=\"1024\" height=\"578\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Gold-3.14.20-1024x578.png 1024w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Gold-3.14.20-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Gold-3.14.20-770x435.png 770w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Gold-3.14.20-1536x867.png 1536w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Gold-3.14.20-750x424.png 750w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Gold-3.14.20-1140x644.png 1140w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Gold-3.14.20.png 1700w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By pure coincidence, his sixth book, the non-alarmist \u201cThe Real Crash: America&#8217;s Coming Bankruptcy &#8211; How to Save Yourself and Your Country\u201d was published the same year and updated in 2014. For ~0.00262 BTC you can download the Kindle version from Amazon.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a sign that people will shamelessly flog off anything on the e-commerce site, used paperbacks go for <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">under ten bucks<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The epic fail of that prediction in 2012 caused the noted gold buff considerable reputational harm. To walk it back, a few months after the release of the updated financial apocalypse book mentioned above, Schiff <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2015\/12\/20\/the-peter-meter-assessing-schiffs-predictions.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">told CNBC<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, \u201cobviously it\u2019s going to take a little bit longer than what I believed at the time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(To this date, that particular statement remains his most accurate.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To dig himself as deep into that same hole as possible, the sage boldly asserted that, \u201cIt\u2019ll go through $2,000 very quickly, and people will be upset that they didn\u2019t buy gold at $1,700.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That was circa October 2014. Almost six years on, the golden opportunity remains.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>Absolutely Full of Schiff<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Schiff\u2019s predictive skills probably peaked when he estimated his own odds on running for the Senate at 50\/50. When your prediction capabilities have you sitting on the fence about a decision over which you have full control\u2026 maybe fortune-telling is not your game.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He did eventually run for the Senate, losing the Republican nomination. But on the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Peter_Schiff#2010_US_Senate_campaign\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">campaign trail<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Schiff left us with no doubt over his confidence in his own entitlement to prophesize (and everyone else\u2019s obligation to listen):<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Unlike everybody else, I pretty much predicted everything that would happen in 2008 in specific and exact detail.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now that\u2019s pure gold. Peter Schiff may accidentally prove right about Bitcoin, though I won&#8217;t be putting any money on it. Insights from a dude who <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/peter-schiff-lost-his-bitcoin-claims-owning-crypto-was-a-bad-idea\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">can\u2019t tell a PIN from a password<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are best overlooked.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the meantime, Schiff would be well-advised, for everyone\u2019s sake, to observe the ancient Egyptian proverb translated into English as \u201cSilence is golden.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because we\u2019re too polite to point out what STFU stands for.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4090\" src=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Nailed-It.jpg\" alt=\"Nailed It\" width=\"1200\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Nailed-It.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Nailed-It-300x38.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Nailed-It-770x96.jpg 770w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Nailed-It-1024x128.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Nailed-It-500x63.jpg 500w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Nailed-It-293x37.jpg 293w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><b>Strong Hands in a Bloodbath<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It hasn\u2019t been a great week for cryptocurrency markets. It hasn\u2019t been a great week for any markets. As it finally dawned on the US public that their administration is so incompetent they failed to use a month-long buffer to prepare for the coronavirus, risk-on assets took a beating.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From a high of 29,551 on February 12th the Dow plunged to 21,200 a month later, enduring <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marketwatch.com\/story\/why-the-dow-is-at-risk-of-the-worst-week-in-its-124-year-history-as-coronavirus-fear-grips-wall-street-2020-03-12\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">one of the worst weeks<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in history for the index. Globally, stocks have retreated in fear of a forthcoming recession.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Crypto markets have fared even worse. Bitcoin started the week around $9,000. It is now <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/coinmarketcap.com\/currencies\/bitcoin\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">trading<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at close to $5,000. Ether has <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/coinmarketcap.com\/currencies\/ethereum\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">lost<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> almost half its value since Sunday. In the first ever test of its safe haven properties during wider bearish sentiment, Bitcoin failed to live up to its digital gold credentials.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>Hats Off to the Faithful<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amid the crisis the steely nerves demonstrated by hodlers deserve credit. The cryptocurrency asset class has never before faced current levels of uncertainty. Bitcoin has suffered precipitous drops in the past, but they have never been accompanied by rampaging falls in equity markets.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Safe haven fiat currencies like the US dollar, the Yen, and the Swiss Franc are the only assets to have held their value over the past week. But with massive fiscal and central bank measures announced in the wake of coronavirus fears, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/federal-reserve-injects-168b-greater-than-entire-btc-market-cap\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">pronounced monetary debasement<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is in the making<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Holding onto falling knives is no less painful than catching them. That is especially true for hodlers&#8230; some of whom may even fall into the red. But digital assets are here to stay.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The value of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/angela_lee_duckworth_grit_the_power_of_passion_and_perseverance?language=en\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">grit<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is becoming more widely recognized. If you&#8217;re still able to perceive the reality that Bitcoin is a sound alternative to fiat money, you proved that this week.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Bravo, or brava.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em>Opinions expressed in this column are those of the author.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The goldbug tried desperately to appear wise and prescient, while less reactive Bitcoin investors decided to wait out the market turmoil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":4522,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[154,62],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[225,222,267,269,273,268,275,168,271,261,260,274,272,262,265,266,263,270,276,264],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4520"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4520"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5147,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4520\/revisions\/5147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4520"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}