Euro Pacific Capital Inc. CEO Peter Schiff
Investors are "drunk on the Kool-Aid that is Bitcoin," says veteran market forecaster Peter Schiff.
"No matter how high it goes, they're never going to sell," Schiff told TheStreet on Dec. 10.
Since Jan. 1, the price of Bitcoin has grown 1,600%.
And this week, Bitcoin prices are surging again as futures trading begins.
But according to Schiff, the rally won't last.
"Ultimately, I think Bitcoin has really no value," said Schiff. "In the market, it has plenty of value. As long as there's buying, there's value. But when the buying goes away, so does the value."
Here's the thing…
Schiff has an ulterior motive behind his prediction.
Editor's Note: Money Morning knows cryptocurrencies. We've been writing about them since 2011, far longer than most other news sites. To get 100% free, real-time alerts sent to your inbox, sign up here.
Not only is Schiff a notorious permabear who has been calling for a stock market pullback since 2014, but he's also a longtime gold bug.
So it would make sense that he doesn't want Bitcoin to succeed. After all, many are worried that as more and more people pile in droves into Bitcoin, less people will be interested in investing in the heavy metal.
In fact, Forbes recently reported more people than ever are now searching for how to buy Bitcoin, as opposed to searching for how to buy gold.
According to a New York Times report, big Wall Street investors are also "pouring their money" into the virtual coin, with the number of hedge funds focusing on cryptocurrencies increasing this year from 30 to almost 130.
Some Bitcoin enthusiasts are even calling the cryptocurrency "Gold 2.0"
"We've always felt that Bitcoin, given its properties, is gold 2.0," said Cameron Winklevoss, who owns over $1 billion worth of Bitcoin, to CNBC on Friday. "Gold is scarce, Bitcoin is actually fixed. Bitcoin is way more portable and way more divisible [than gold]."
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Winklevoss even went as far as to compare Bitcoin's market cap, around $300 billion yesterday, with gold's, at $6 trillion. "If Bitcoin disrupting gold is true… then you can see 10 to 20 times appreciation because there is significant delta still."
For the record, we think Winklevoss is wrong about gold. In fact, we think the recent flare up of public interest in Bitcoin could be setting gold up for a huge rally down the road. And in the long run, we see both as excellent moneymaking vehicles.
But we agree the Bitcoin price is far from its peak.
"It's always possible the price of Bitcoin could collapse (that's true of just about any investment), but bubble fears aren't a good reason to sell your Bitcoin," Money Morning Cryptocurrency Expert Dave Zeiler told readers last month.
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"Winklevoss even went as far as to compare Bitcoin's market cap, around $300 billion yesterday, with gold's, at $6 billion."
Think that's a typo, gold should be around 6-7 trillion, not billion. Otherwise this wouldn't even be a discussion.
Hi there,
Good eye! This error has been corrected. We appreciate your comment, and thank you for reading Money Morning!
– Corina Heich, Editor
can't wait