In February 2021, Peter Schiff accused Elon Musk of manipulating cryptocurrency prices with his tweets. Last week, he made the same allegation again, pointing out that the billionaire played a key role in the bull run that pushed bitcoin to an all-time high of $69,000 in late 2021. Now it seems that the economist and the main critic of bitcoin the culprit behind this bitcoin (BTC) heads.
Bitcoin powered by CNBC ad?
Grayscale is undoubtedly the world’s largest crypto asset manager, especially thanks to its bitcoin-focused trust. American economist and entrepreneur Peter Schiff recently tweeted that Schiff approved the fund manager cryptocurrency driven at $69,000.
Tea #Grayscale Bitcoin Trust was one of the main reasons #Bitcoin increase to $69K. Announced on @CNBC to make retail investors pay huge premiums to NAV. He then issued new shares to institutions at NAV, using the proceeds to buy more Bitcoin, pushing the price even higher.
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) November 21, 2022
According to him, Grayscale was actively advertised on CNBC to attract the attention of retail investors, who were willing to pay “huge premiums” for the trust’s net asset value. He goes on to say that after attracting funds from retail investors, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust issued more shares to institutions and used the proceeds generated to buy more bitcoin (BTC), which pushed the price straight up to new heights.
This statement comes days after he mocked the cryptocurrency’s current price level, pointing out that it was Elon Musk’s job that helped drive the price towards its ATH last year.
The crypto community is going after Peter Schiff!
On Twitter where he made the post, members of the crypto community objected to his comments. For many of the participants, it is strange that a great economist of his stature would make such comments.
“The rise of Bitcoin last year was the result of many factors, one of which could be Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (…) Bitcoin trades in billions of dollars every day. Because of this, a single entity such as GBTC cannot raise or lower its price. BTC is not a small asset whose price can be manipulated”, said a speaker whose publication generated many retweets.
For another speaker, Peter Schiff has an unhealthy obsession with the world of crypto and is also not credible to talk about what is happening in this market. By sharing the economist’s publication, he asked him to talk about gold, as he is well known to do so.
Also read: Peter Schiff again criticizes bitcoin (BTC) and points out an interesting fact
Peter Schiff’s criticism of bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies in particular has been growing louder since the beginning of the bear market. Currently, Grayscale’s BTC trust is trading at a 43% discount to its actual BTC holdings.
This concerned some investors, who recently asked GBTC to release its proof of reserves, which Greyscale refused. In particular, he cited security reasons to explain his decision. However, the company has published a letter in which it confirms that the assets are in place security from Coinbase Keep.