On July 4, Peter Schiff, the CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, a full-service, registered broker/dealer specializing in foreign markets and securities, and founder and Chairman of SchiffGold, a full-service, discount precious metals dealer, and a man who is extremely bullish on gold, bearish on the U.S. dollar, and highly skeptical about Bitcoin, admitted to owning Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and said that he was going to HODL his bitcoin no matter what happens to the Bitcoin price.
This is what Schiff said about Bitcoin one day after BTC reached its 2019 high of $13,813:
The idea that Bitcoin is just like gold is utter nonsense. Bitcoin is nothing like gold. It’s fool’s gold. There is not a single use case where Bitcoin can be used as a substitute for gold. Plus the gold price never falls by over 25% in less than 24 hours!
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) June 27, 2019
This is was not all surprising given what Sciff had said about Bitcoin in the past and the fact that SchiffGold sells gold and not Bitcoin, and so it is in Schiff’s interest to promote gold over Bitcoin.
However, something rather interesting happened earlier today (July 5), when Anthony Pompliano (aka “Pomp”), Co-founder & Partner at Morgan Creek Digital, tweeted that despite Schiff’s constatnt criticisms of Bitcoin, Schiff did own some Bitcoin:
The vocal Bitcoin hater @PeterSchiff recently admitted that he actually does own some Bitcoin.
Never listen to what they say, always watch what they do with their money!
— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) July 5, 2019
Schiff replied that this was true, but his Bitcoin, which he had received as a “gift”, was only worth around $100.
Pomp then asked for Schiff’s BTC wallet address so that he and other Bitcoiners could send Schiff some more Bitcoin:
Just paste the address here.
Myself and a few other Bitcoiners will send you some Bitcoin. You nail the issues we are facing, but just need to upgrade the solution from gold to Bitcoin!
You’re already a Bitcoiner and haven’t even realized it yet 🙂
— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) July 5, 2019
When Schiff checked his crypto, he discovered that he owned some BTC, BCH, and ETH:
I just checked it to get the address. I actually only have about 80 bucks worth. But I also have a small amount of Bitcoin cash and Ether.
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) July 5, 2019
And when Schiff tweeted out his BTC wallet address (“1LZpj4zkgcGzGb9EuLLbwby1BPT3c1uRTy”), he started receiving bitcoin.
Around one and half hours after Pomp’s suggestion for people to start sending Bitcoin, Schiff made a very interesting comment:
Thanks. So far I've received about $130 dollars worth of Bitcoin. I guess I'll have to hodl it and go down with the ship.
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) July 5, 2019
By 03:42 UTC, Schiff had over $500 worth of Bitcoin:
No, it's my account. I'm up to over $500 worth now.
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) July 5, 2019
Crypto journalist/podcaster Vlad Costea declared Schiff a member of the crypto community:
— Vlad Costea (@TheVladCostea) July 5, 2019
We’ll leave the last word to Pomp, who started this whole conversation:
Good idea. Now that the community has gifted you one of the most scarce assets in the world, you should also buy $100 worth of Bitcoin.
Then you can say you hold Bitcoin, some of which was gifted and some of which you bought 🙂
Proud of you for being open minded!
— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) July 5, 2019
