Exclusive Interview: Peter Schiff Compares Bitcoin to Cigarettes, Says BTC Has “No Real Value”
American economist and distinguished gold advocate Peter Schiff didn’t maintain again his criticisms of Bitcoin (BTC) throughout an unique interview at Binance Blockchain Week 2025 in Dubai, the place the annual occasion drew lots of of 1000’s of attendees from world wide.
Schiff headlined the convention’s most anticipated session, a gold vs. Bitcoin debate with Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ). While Schiff stays considered one of crypto’s most vocal skeptics, he’s making ready to launch a tokenized gold cost system designed to modernize how bodily gold can flow into as cash.
Before stepping onstage, Schiff sat down with Cryptonews to break down why he nonetheless believes Bitcoin is destined to fail and why tokenized gold, not digital shortage, represents the way forward for sound cash.
Cryptonews: Why Are You Bearish on Bitcoin?
Peter Schiff: I don’t imagine Bitcoin goes to work. Yes, there have been instances after I thought the value was going to go up, however that’s separate from my final understanding of what Bitcoin is and the place the value is mostly going.
Bitcoin’s value is a perform of the individuals who want to gamble on it. You can have a time frame the place folks need to purchase Bitcoin, and the individuals who personal the asset don’t need to promote it, after which the value goes up. We’ve clearly had tremendous BTC price appreciation over the years.
But it’s actually fascinating that Bitcoin peaked similtaneously gold. If Bitcoin is being portrayed as some digital equivalent of gold, one of the best ways to value Bitcoin can be when it comes to gold. But when it comes to gold, Bitcoin continues to be significantly under the place gold was 4 years in the past.
If I used to be actually into Bitcoin, this is able to trigger me to query the entire narrative. Why is Bitcoin decrease than gold was 4 years in the past, regardless of all of the hype round Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, Bitcoin treasury firms, and electing a pro-Bitcoin U.S. president?
So, why is Bitcoin nonetheless decrease than gold was 4 years in the past? And if Bitcoin can’t catch up now, why will it go up sooner or later?
CN: Is there one more reason why you suppose Bitcoin isn’t going to work?
PS: Bitcoin can’t work as cash as a result of it doesn’t have any intrinsic worth. And it gained’t work as a retailer of worth as a result of you’ll be able to’t retailer what you don’t have, proper? An asset should possess worth to be a retailer of worth. Bitcoin has a value, however you’ll be able to’t retailer the value.
Also, the value of BTC is topic to market forces solely. This means you by no means know what the value of Bitcoin goes to be value sooner or later. It’s all depending on the individuals who want to purchase Bitcoin versus the folks not keen to promote it.
If to procure Bitcoin years in the past you possibly can promote it at a a lot increased value, however that also doesn’t make it a retailer of worth.
CN: How would you outline “retailer of worth?”
PS: Gold is a retailer of worth. For occasion, there’s gold in my watch. At $4,000 for an oz. of gold, there’s about $20,000 value of precise gold on this watch. Somebody may soften this watch down after which use the gold—that’s the reason gold is a retailer of worth.
Also, the worth that gold has in a single yr may stay over lots of and 1000’s of years. People would nonetheless have the opportunity to use the gold to do all of the issues that you possibly can do with it immediately. Do you actually suppose the worth that gold has as a metallic goes to disappear?
There’s a shelf life on gold. Gold is value simply as a lot when it’s 10 years previous as when it’s model new. It doesn’t matter after I take the gold out of the mine. The gold that I mined immediately has the identical worth as gold that was mined 100 years in the past – the worth is saved.
Bitcoin doesn’t have any worth immediately as a result of there isn’t a actual use for it. There’s no demand for it. There’s no industrial use for Bitcoin. People don’t want Bitcoin to make merchandise.
In reality, many individuals use gold as a hedge in opposition to inflation. They personal gold, they usually hedge it in case it drops. No one’s doing that with Bitcoin. There’s no precise finish consumer of Bitcoin.
CN: How would you then describe Bitcoin?
PS: I describe Bitcoin as being the cigarettes of cash. Cigarettes will be thought-about as cash as a result of folks smoke and that’s why they’re in a position to flow into. The GIs used cigarettes as cash after World War II, and cigarettes perform as cash in prisons.
If somebody accepts cigarettes as a medium of alternate—even when they don’t smoke as a result of they know that they can provide them to another person—that’s what provides these cigarettes worth. But, if there are not any people who smoke, then the cigarettes change into nugatory—and so that’s what I take into consideration Bitcoin.
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