Billionaire investor Mark Cuban had a Twitter spat with Peter Schiff, culminating in the Shark Tank star telling the gold bug that gold was dead and it was time to move on.
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has turned from a Bitcoin sceptic to defending it publicly in a matter of weeks. The Shark Tank star responded to Schiff’s latest nonsensical Twitter rant, claiming Wall Street had been duped into buying the Bitcoin hype.
Ironically, Schiff’s tweet was triggered by Cuban’s Shark Tank co-star Kevin O’Leary who completed his own about turn and announced it was time to allocate a few percent of his portfolio into Bitcoin.
Schiff said at the time he never thought ‘smart investors would be dumb enough to buy Bitcoin’ and that Wall Street buying into the ‘mania’ has allowed whales to dump on them.
Gold vs Bitcoin Debate
Peter Schiff’s latest rant triggered once sceptic and now Bitcoin proponent Mark Cuban to offer some advice for the ageing gold bug.
‘Let me help Peter. Gold is hyped as much as crypto,’ explained the Dallas Mavericks owner. ‘Do we really need gold jewelry? Gold can make you a ring. BTC/ETH are technologies that can make you a banker, allow friction free exchange of value and are extensible into an unlimited range of biz and personal applications.’
Alert at the Twitter wheel, Schiff was as quick as ever to respond. The gold bug argued the case for jewelery, which is a premium on actual gold bars, claiming unlike Bitcoin, which is 100% hype, gold isn’t hyped at all.
‘Mark, a lot of your athletes wear gold jewelry,’ explained the Schiff Gold salesman. ‘Ask them why. Gold has many uses outside of jewelry that contribute to its value as a metal. It’s not hyped at all. Gold is money. Bitcoin is 100% hype. It’s nothing.’
The billionaire investor’s riposte was clear and on point, saying Bitcoin will get better, cheaper and faster, whereas, gold is simply gold and ‘won’t ever change’. And Mark Cuban’s damning verdict was that gold will die as a store of value.
Peter Schiff would never concede defeat, of course, telling Cuban that he should have stuck with bananas – a reference to Cuban’s now infamous preference to owning bananas than Bitcoin.
The Twitter spat was typical of both famed investors come social media influencers, but Shark Tank star Cuban had the decisive comment, saying, ‘Gold is dead Peter. Move on.’
The Money And Brains Moving Into Bitcoin Must Frustrate Peter Schiff
The amount of smart money and brains moving into Bitcoin must be frustrating for Bitcoin’s most vocal antagonist for many years.
In Q3 2020, as gold was marching to a new all-time high, and Bitcoin was still about 50% from its December 2017 all-time high of almost $20k, Peter Schiff claimed Bitcoin wouldn’t even come close to another all-time high.
‘Gold will likely make a new all-time high in 2020. Bitcoin won’t even come close,’ tweeted Schiff back then. The loudmouth gold bug was half right, because gold went on to make a new all-time high, but as history has proved, he got his Bitcoin prediction badly wrong. Again.
Since gold hit its all-time high of $2076 back in August 2020, however, it has been on a steady decline. In that same period, Bitcoin has gone from $11,000 to a recent high of $58,000, a hike led by institutional adoption, which has led Schiff to claim they’re all being duped.
Schiff obviously isn’t convinced about Bitcoin, and is still calling it a ponzi scheme and a 21st century tulip bubble.
Unlikely as it may seem, however, the debate with Mark Cuban and the moves from the likes of Kevin O’Leary are possibly starting to affect Schiff’s own opinion.
Personally, I don’t think gold is dead, but in the digital age, it is yesterday’s store of value. So, Peter, it’s time to swallow your pride and move on.
A Bitcoiner since 2017 and a Bitcoin Maximalist since 2018, Tommy is our main writer and editor at Bitcoin Maximalist. Other than researching and writing about Bitcoin, Tommy loves spending time with his family and supporting his beloved Leeds United.
