Wall Street tycoon Peter Schiff warns of a “pump and dump” Bitcoin boom — expect to see “carnage”

Wall Street mogul Peter Schiff warned that the current surge in Bitcoin prices looks like "another classic pump and dump." He noted the great excitement about the new spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) and expressed his skepticism, saying, "I wonder when the bloodbath will begin."

(Screenshot from Bitcoin.com)

On Monday (February 12), the price of Bitcoin soared to more than $50,000. Although many people are optimistic that the price of Bitcoin will rise further as the Bitcoin halving approaches, Peter Schiff, CEO and chief global strategist of Euro Pacific Asset Management, remains skeptical. He wrote on the social media platform X: "It looks like Bitcoin is staging a classic high and then sell-off... There is a lot of hype around the newly listed Bitcoin ETF. I wonder when the bloodbath will start."

Many responded to Schiff by reminding him of his past inaccurate predictions about the price of Bitcoin. They also highlighted that Schiff has consistently been against advice to buy Bitcoin, pointing out that Bitcoin prices were significantly lower in the past and highlighting missed opportunities by following his advice.

In November 2018, Schiff tweeted: “Don’t make the mistake of thinking buying Bitcoin below $3,800 is a bargain just because it’s currently over 80% below its all-time high. Bitcoin could easily fall another 80% from here and $750 would still be expensive!”

In January, following the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs and the subsequent drop in Bitcoin prices, Schiff declared all such ETFs to be in a bear market and warned that even greater losses could be on the way.

He expected speculators to sell Bitcoin and institutional demand to be minimal, and further predicted that potential "onerous crypto regulation" under SEC Chairman Gary Gensler would trigger a "Bitcoin bloodbath."

Veteran trader Peter Brandt responded to Schiff’s “classic pump and dump” comments on Bitcoin on the X platform: “In fact, I believe that one day you will be right about a market. My guess is that it will not be Bitcoin.”

Bitcoin hit its highest point since December 2021 at $50,383 on Tuesday, but fell below $50,000 after U.S. CPI data triggered a surge in the dollar.

The report from the U.S. Department of Labor on Tuesday showed that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in January increased by 3.1% year-on-year, higher than the expected 2.9%; CPI increased by 0.3% month-on-month, higher than the expected 0.2%; core CPI increased by 3.9% year-on-year, higher than the expected 3.7%; core CPI increased by 0.4% month-on-month, the largest increase in eight months, higher than the expected 0.3%, and higher than the previous value of 0.3% in December.