Puerto Rican Regulators Closes Peter Schiff’s Bank – a Case for Decentralization?

Puerto Rican authorities have closed down the Euro Pacific Bank, a local financial institution that belongs to Peter Schiff, the world’s most vocal Bitcoin (BTC) critic

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Sharing his ideas on Twitter, Schiff said the closure of his bank was unjustifiable, given that the media knew about the closure even before he did. He, citing the banking regulators in the US territory, claimed the bank did not meet the required capital to continue operations, a rule he was not aware of from the start.

“Despite no evidence of crimes, Puerto Rico regulators closed my bank anyway for net capital issues rather than allow a sale to a highly qualified buyer promising to inject capital far in excess of regulatory minimums. As a result, accounts are frozen, and customers may lose money,” he tweeted.

Schiff said he has plans to sell the bank in which he will realize as much as $17.5 million in follow-up tweets from the proposed sale of the firm to a ready buyer who will inject the needed capital. He claims the regulator’s position became more complicated as they were more concerned about the bad press about him.

The regulator allegedly blocked the sale because there was a clause in which Schiff will own a 4% stake in the new entity that purchased the bank. The economist said the regulator’s actions were without consideration because he has invested as much as $7.5 million in maintaining operating costs over the past 2 years.

Many people on Twitter believe Schiff is being served a dose of what pushed many people to embrace decentralization and Bitcoin (BTC). As a prominent critic of all Bitcoin represents, many are admonishing Schiff to shun his pride and adopt a system that governments can seize or close up irrespective of their reach.

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How Can Bitcoin Be A Safe-Haven Asset When It Is So Greatly Influenced by a Tweet, says Peter Schiff

Elon Musk, the Chief Executive Officer of Tesla, came under fire over the weekend when he revealed that the company had decided to stop accepting Bitcoin payments due the excessive energy consumption needed for Bitcoin mining.

The announcement triggered a massive drop in Bitcoin’s price, where the cryptocurrency went from a high of $57,939.36 to a low of $42,284.57 in a matter of 7 days. Based on recent trends, Bitcoin has now spent three months bouncing between $40,000 and the $60,000 psychological level.

Peter Schiff’s Criticism

While the entire crypto twitter was busy criticizing Elon Musk and Tesla for manipulating the market, Peter Schiff seized the opportunity to reiterate his thoughts on Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency ecosystem. The gold bull had long criticized crypto as being a bubble in general. This time, Schiff noted that the fact that one man and one tweet could wield such a massive influence on Bitcoin is an indication that buying Bitcoin consists more of a gamble. He said:

“If a single @elonmusk tweet can have so much influence over the price of #Bitcoin how can anyone seriously consider it to be money? How can Bitcoin be a safe-haven asset if a one-word tweet puts it at risk? It should be clear by now that buying Bitcoin is gambling, not investing.”

The unrelenting critic also noted that an “I told you so” moment will come as the price of Bitcoin still has a long way to fall.

Unique but with Obvious Flaws

Bitcoin proponents may oppose Peter Schiff and his unrelenting efforts to bash Bitcoin, however, many agree with him that despite the coin’s uniqueness, certain centralized factors can influence the price action of the nascent digital currency and asset class.

From the centralization of the mining activities in China, which affected the industry when the Xinjiang province got flooded, to the massive influence of Musk, there is a growing consensus among stakeholders that Bitcoin’s narrative still needs to change slightly to attain maturity. New players are encouraged to start Bitcoin mining, preferably using green energy, while many have brought up the issue of whether Elon Musk’s tweets can potentially be considered as market manipulation, seeing as Bitcoin is heavily impacted everytime the billionaire comments on it through Twitter.

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Peter Schiff Criticizes Investors who Succeeded in Getting Wall Street to Buy into the Bitcoin Mania

Amid the ongoing resuscitation in the global crypto market, Bitcoin (BTC) critic Peter Schiff has thrown shade at the digital currency’s early adopters, particularly those who were instrumental in pushing up the price of the digital asset when it was undergoing its last major correction.

Schiff, known for his antagonistic views in regards to Bitcoin investments, noted that he did not expect any smart investor to dabble into the unknown world of cryptocurrencies.

Per his words:

“Congratulations to those who bought Bitcoin early, pumped up the price, and who’ve been dumping into the hype. You succeeded in getting Wall Street to buy into the mania. When I first learned about #Bitcoin, I didn’t think smart investors would be dumb enough to buy. I was wrong.”

The Wall Street Mania

The digital currency space has seen a lot of inflows of funds from American corporate investors in recent times, the latest of which is MicroStrategy’s $15 million acquisition of 328 BTC, announced by the company yesterday.

This year, there have been several major Bitcoin acquisitions from institutional investors, with the most prominent one coming from Tesla Inc. The electric vehicle maker company purchased a record $1.5 billion worth of the digital asset. According to a recent report by Blockchain.news, investment banking giant, Goldman Sachs is also reviving its Bitcoin futures trading service, after putting it on hold for three years.

These are major Wall Street entities, and the mania Schiff is referencing may see the influx of new firms like this riding the tide of Bitcoin, as the new asset class promises to serve as a better store of value for the dwindling United States Dollar.

Schiff May Need to Warm His Banter

Peter Schiff may need to warm up his criticisms as the year is bound to see increased investor activities, not just into Bitcoin, but into the entire cryptocurrency industry. As unrelenting as he will be in finding faults with the adopters of the new internet money, so also will many like MicroStrategy not relent in stacking up more digital assets. Time will ultimately tell who is right and who is wrong.

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Gold Bull Peter Schiff Changes Bitcoin Price Prediction as BTC Smashes New Record of $50,000

Bitcoin has achieved a new record high of $50,000 as institutional support has continued to pile onto the cryptocurrency.

Institutional support backing Bitcoin

Currently, although it has pulled back slightly from its highs of $50K, market experts are expecting Bitcoin (BTC) to breach the $50,000 level again and soar to new heights. The amount of institutional investors backing Bitcoin has served to propel its value higher. At the moment, MicroStrategy, one of the leading institutional figures to add Bitcoin to its balance sheet, has announced that it intends to use the proceeds from its $600 million private offering to acquire more Bitcoin. Additionally, Canada’s Ontario Securities Commission has approved its second Bitcoin ETF by Evolve, which will be traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The cherry on top of it all may be that Tesla has announced a $1.5 billion BTC purchase, which has served to draw renewed interest in the digital asset. Tesla founder Elon Musk’s support of Bitcoin has been monumental for the cryptocurrency industry, Coinfund head of liquidity investments Seth Ginns asserted. He shared with Bloomberg:

“The tailwind here is the continued institutional look at adding Bitcoin to the balance sheet, and Tesla is a game-changer in my view.”

While many market bulls have praised Bitcoin and have been excited about the new milestone, other skeptics have been persistent in keeping a more conservative outlook on the digital asset.

Peter Schiff not a Bitcoin fan

Gold bull Peter Schiff figures among the seemingly few who have not converted to Bitcoin. Previously, the renowned investor had said that “Bitcoin would never hit 50K.” Although Schiff is still far from being a Bitcoin pioneer, he has conceded that the digital asset may potentially reach a price mark up of $100,000 in the long run. Schiff said:

“Now that #Bitcoin has hit $50,000 I must admit that a move up to $100,000 can’t be ruled out. However a move down to zero can’t be ruled out either.”

He added that if investors wanted a safe bet they should “buy gold.”

Schiff’s son Spencer, who has long been a Bitcoin advocate, responded to his father’s tweet and quipped playfully at Schiff’s inability to admit that his BTC price prediction was wrong. He jokingly tweeted, “Future tweet: ‘Now that Bitcoin has hit $500,000 I must admit that a move up to $1,000,000 can’t be ruled out. However…”

Bubble territory won’t dampen Bitcoin growth

Although Schiff admitted that he was wrong about Bitcoin never reaching $50,000, he still remains a huge Bitcoin skeptic. The gold bull called “Bitcoin the biggest bubble of them all.” Schiff would not be the only one that has ever doubted cryptocurrencies, as the volatility surrounding digital assets have driven away more than one Wall Street investor.

Previously, Shark Tank entrepreneur Mark Cuban had commented on the cryptocurrency sector’s volatility, comparing it to the internet stock bubble that occurred in the late 1990s. Although he thinks that many cryptocurrencies will be flushed out once a bubble burst occurs, Cuban predicts that Bitcoin and Ethereum will be among the few that will survive and rise to new heights of innovation.

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Peter Schiff Criticizes Sequoia Capital’s Employee BTC Plans, Says It’s An Attempt to “Sucker in Buyers”

Renowned gold bull and Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff has taken a dig at Sequoia Holding LLC, a software development and engineering company who recently announced that it will start paying its employees in Bitcoin (BTC). Peter Schiff has criticized the scheme, calling it is an attempt to “Sucker in buyers” amid the ongoing dip experienced by the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin has been seeing a huge price retracement that suggests that the bull run it had sustained since the end of last year is coming to an end. At the time of writing, BTC is trading at a price of around $30,855.31, representing a 10.79% drop over the past 24 hours, and an overall loss of 19.63% on a seven-day period, according to CoinMarketCap. The bearish downtrend of the cryptocurrency has rubbed off on the entire crypto market. Currently, the sector’s market cap has once again dipped below $1 trillion.

Gold bull Peter Schiff had always faulted Bitcoin, saying it is a Ponzi Scheme whose frequent price runs form an unstainable bubble. Per his comments on Sequoia’s plans, Schiff tweeted:

“Sequoia Holdings isn’t paying its employees in #Bitcoin. It’s just a bunch of hype to falsely portray Bitcoin as money to sucker in buyers. Sequoia is offering to buy Bitcoin for its employees using part of their dollar salaries instead of the employees buying Bitcoin themselves.”

While the source of Schiff’s assertions remains unclear, his positioning lends credence to his old claims that Bitcoin needs more new buyers to remain inherently valuable.

How Steep is The Bitcoin Price Going To Fall? 

The volatility associated with cryptocurrencies makes the ongoing fall in Bitcoin’s unsurprising. According to an earlier report by Blockchain.News, analysts including Carl Martin weighing in on the current trend have stated that Bitcoin is experiencing weakness in the short-term.

The December 2017 bull run in which Bitcoin crossed its first significant all-time high above $19,000 was accompanied by a massive correction that pulled the price down to $5,000 in the following months. With the ongoing dip, general speculation among analysts seem to all point to BTC veering close to $20,000 in the short term.

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Bitcoin (BTC) $ 26,459.09 0.57%
Ethereum (ETH) $ 1,587.27 0.47%
Litecoin (LTC) $ 64.28 1.31%
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 206.82 1.11%