With the larger part of the cryptocurrency market flashing red after a period of exceptional bullishness, Bitcoin (BTC) is leading the trend, and one of its most famous critics, Peter Schiff, has warned about the possibility of its catastrophic crash due to the spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Indeed, the prominent Bitcoin skeptic has voiced his opinion that the more of the flagship decentralized finance (DeFi) asset enters into ETFs, the more vulnerable it will become to a “catastrophic crash,” according to his post on the social media platform X shared on March 18.
As Schiff explained, this is because “ETF buyers are more likely traders than true believers” in Bitcoin’s underlying technology, so if the price of the maiden crypto asset is increasing, “they’ll go along for the ride.” However, “once it enters a bear market, they’ll bail out.”
The more #Bitcoin that moves into ETFs, the more vulnerable Bitcoin becomes to a catastrophic crash. That’s because ETF buyers are more likely traders than true believers. So if Bitcoin is going up they’ll go along for the ride. But once it enters a bear market, they’ll bail out.
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) March 18, 2024
Peter Schiff Twitter clash
Replying to comments from crypto market enthusiasts that crashes are normal in the industry, and occur every four years, the economist acknowledged it, but also added that it has never happened before “with so many Bitcoin coming out of ETFs,” adding that:
“These will be market orders, without limits, that must be filled as they hit. Buyers must pay with actual dollars. No Tether (USDT) purchases will be allowed.”
Not long afterward, Schiff pointed out that “Bitcoin has fallen 15% from its peak price of just under $74K, without a single day of outflows from any of the new Bitcoin ETFs (not counting GBTC),” suggesting it would have declined even further “without ETF buying,” and even more “when all Bitcoin ETFs have outflows.”
#Bitcoin has fallen 15% from its peak price of just under $74K, without a single day of outflows from any of the new #BitcoinETFs. (not counting $GBTC). Image how much more Bitcoin would have fallen without ETF buying. Now image what happens when all Bitcoin ETFs have outflows.
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) March 19, 2024
Continuing his discussion with the crypto community as one of the commenters challenged his views by asking what would happen to gold price if the gold ETFs started selling, the Bitcoin critic argued that it would “keep rising anyway” because “gold ETFs have had outflows all year.”
“That hasn’t stopped gold from making new record highs. Bitcoin needs ETF buying. If the ETFs start selling, Bitcoin will crash. There is not enough buying in the spot market to offset the sell volume.”
Peter Schiff Bitcoin views
As a reminder, Schiff had another heated discussion with members of the crypto community earlier this year, during which he said that Bitcoin could hit $10 million by 2031, but only if the US dollar went the way of the German Papiermark and became worthless, as Finbold reported on January 29.
More recently, he bashed the digital asset as “part of the move to speculate and gamble, (…) and Bitcoin kind of had its own narrative with all those ETFs launched, there’s a dozen or so Bitcoin ETFs and so there was a lot of hype there that led to that rally” referring to the price growth that started in February.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin was at press time trading at $63,283, down 7.41% on the day and losing 12.76% on its weekly chart while still holding onto the 21.23% gain accumulated across the previous month, according to the most recent price information on March 19.
Ultimately, Peter Schiff may or may not be right about Bitcoin’s future, but regardless of whether or not one agrees with him, caution is always necessary, be it in terms of crypto assets or precious metals like gold, and detailed research before investing into any of them is critical.
Disclaimer: The content on this site should not be considered investment advice. Investing is speculative. When investing, your capital is at risk.
