Benzinga - Peter Schiff is a Bitcoin skeptic who became famous for predicting the 2007 mortgage-backed securities market crash.
"The truth is the real success of Bitcoin rests on more people buying it," he said. "If you own it, you need to get many of your friends or colleagues to buy it because that's the only way its prices go up."
However, on Anthony Pompliano's podcast, Schiff gave a take on Bitcoin that is seemingly contradictory to his previous anti-crypto stance.
"Can Bitcoin rally to a $100,000 or more? Sure it can, but I don't even think it's worth betting on it because it's not even that big of a rise. … I just don't think there's enough upside anymore for it to be interesting to anybody. … I mean it's been going sideways now for three years … it hit the high, almost hit $70,000 in 2021, this is 2024. … I just don't see the next catalyst for the rise."
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Pompliano's podcast, "The Pomp Podcast," has hosted some of the largest names in the financial space, such as Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood and investor and TV personality Mark Cuban as well as pop culture icons such as YouTuber Jake Paul. The podcast receives significant attention, so Schiff's comments are notable.
While Schiff was indicating that Bitcoin could nearly double from current prices, he sees the asset as much more of a gamble, saying, "Bitcoin is not a safe haven, low volatile store of asset."
In contrast to Bitcoin, Schiff highlighted gold and stocks as investments for more intrinsic value. These investments allow you to "collect a dividend" or "make jewelry," he said. When asked whether Bitcoin could reach $1 million, Schiff said it was possible. However, in that case, he said that "gold is probably going to be higher."
Schiff also said that Bitcoin could go as high as $10 million. The caveat is that he believes this is only possible through some sort of hyperinflation event with the U.S. dollar, such as the one experienced in Germany in the 1920s.
Schiff said that if Bitcoin were to trade for more than $1 million, "you're a millionaire on paper but there's a lot of millionaires in Zimbabwe, in countries that have had hyperinflation" and that "Venezuela has a lot of millionaires, but their millions don't buy anything, so Bitcoin might go up in that sense, but it's not going to go up in a real sense."
These comments come after a strong week and month for Bitcoin. The token is up nearly 4% this week and almost 25% in the last month. Additionally, the price surpassed $50,000 for the first time since December 2021.
The recent rally in Bitcoin comes after a sell-the-news event with the approval of spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs). However, the recent price movement begs the question: Can Bitcoin reach $100,000? If so, when?
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