Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao and Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson have taken gold bug Peter Schiff to task for his professionalized Bitcoin (BTC) naysaying.
On May 6, Zhao, better known in the industry as CZ, responded to Schiff’s online admission that he likes to “rile up” folk in the crypto space, quipping that:
“He [Schiff] tweets more #bitcoin than gold. And his commenters/followers are all bitcoin people. He is the sheep in wolf's skin.”
Schiff — a libertarian economist and broker/dealer who made his name as a vocal public advocate of gold — has in recent years devoted significant airspace to criticizing Bitcoin. In his admission yesterday, he wrote that once Bitcoin ostensibly “collapses,” his crypto-adversarial stance will be obsolete:
“So I need to make hay while the sun shines, as it won't shine for long.”
Picking up CZ’s thread, Hoskinson, who went on to found the altcoin Cardano (ADA) after his early work at Ethereum, responded:
“I've known him [Schiff] since 2007. Dr. Doom has the same old pattern. The sky is falling, the economy is doomed! Only gold can save us. Everything else is a scam. Bitcoin is bad because reasons xyz. Same pitch for a decade.”
Hoskinson tellingly grouped Schiff with “Dr. Doom,” the nickname earned by the well-known economist Dr. Nouriel Roubini for his successful prediction of the 2008 financial crisis.
Roubini, like Schiff, has become a quasi-professional cryptocurrency contrarian, making frequent appearances on the crypto conference circuit to spar with developers and advocates of decentralized finance.
Both men’s public image, CZ and Hoskinson imply, has evolved to feed on the industry they aspire to debunk.
In recent weeks, Schiff has gone on record to taunt Bitcoin investors during the COVD-19 market mayhem, claiming that “only fools” are choosing the cryptocurrency.
True to form, Dr. Doom this week aired a personal broadcast exclusively devoted to “Crypto, Shitcoins & Blockchain are The Mother of All Bubbles Now Gone Bust."