SAVAGE: Peter Schiff At The Bitcoin 2025 Conference, Calls Entire Crowd “Bag Holders” in Epic Takedown

Yes, he did it again. At the huge Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas – surrounded by 30,000 true believers, countless crypto booths, and an atmosphere of religious fervor – renowned gold advocate Peter Schiff stepped into the lion’s den and demolished everything the crowd held sacred.

And here’s the kicker: Schiff admits he’s probably responsible for more Bitcoin ownership than anyone else at the conference. “Based on what I’ve been told by countless people who have asked me to pose for selfies with them, I am probably responsible for more people owning Bitcoin than any other person at this conference,” Schiff revealed with characteristic bluntness. “And every time I tell you guys not to buy Bitcoin, you buy more.”

The $100,000 Mistake That Started It All

Schiff’s Bitcoin origin story reads like a masterclass in missed opportunities – or brilliant foresight, depending on your perspective. Back in 2010, during his Senate campaign, staffers suggested he buy the mysterious digital currency trading for around a dollar. “I actually thought about buying it, you know? I mean, it was I don’t know if it was a dollar, less than a dollar more. I can’t remember exactly. I thought about throwing 10 grand in or 50 grand,” Schiff recounted.

But he says he asked the question that ended his momentary flirtation with digital currency: “What’s to stop somebody else from coming up with another one? I mean, you could just make another one and have another name and can have the same properties. So, in other words, there’s an unlimited number of cryptos that could be created.” 

That realization killed the deal. “Well …, you know, why buy it?” Even when Bitcoin hit $1,000 and crashed to $300-400, Schiff couldn’t pull the trigger. “My biggest mental problem was I couldn’t pay $400 for something that I didn’t want to buy at $4.”

“It’s Just a Giant Blockchain Ponzi”

While he did comment positively about digitizing gold, Schiff clearly took no stock in any gold and Bitcoin ‘rarity’ analogies,  and took apparent joy in calling out what he sees as the fundamental delusion driving the entire ecosystem. “Why does somebody want Bitcoin? Because they think that they’re going to be able to turn around and sell it to somebody else at a higher price. And why does that person want it? Because he has the same expectation that he’ll be able to sell it at a higher price. So, everybody buys Bitcoin simply because they think that someone else will pay more.” His verdict? “It’s … literally a blockchain Ponzi. It’s built on the same foundation as a pyramid scheme.”

The Vegas Casino Analogy

Drawing parallels to their Las Vegas location, Schiff delivered another timely comparison: “It’s like this – we’re in Vegas. This is a gigantic casino, right? And the casinos you have winners and losers, but then you have the house that rakes everything. Some people make money because other people lose money. That’s how crypto works.” “You can look around this room and see all the people here and all the money that’s been spent on all these booths and ask yourself, am I early or am I late? Because if you’re late, you’re the bag holder.”

The 2006 Prophecy That Proves His Point

Schiff reminded the audience of his legendary appearance at the 2006 Western Regional Mortgage Bankers convention, where he predicted the housing crash to a room full of people whose livelihoods depended on mortgages. “I came there to tell a bunch of people whose livelihood depended on mortgage finance that the housing bubble was going to pop and that mortgages were going to collapse and that they were all going to be out of work. And I remember telling them that, you know, in a couple years they’ll have the whole conference in just one hotel room because I knew it was a bubble.”

In perhaps his most controversial take, Schiff argued that Bitcoin has become everything it claimed to oppose:

“What gives fiat currency value is belief. Fiat currency ultimately has value because people believe in it, because people have faith in it. And that is the only reason that Bitcoin has value. Bitcoin is fiat digital currency. Just because it’s not issued by a government doesn’t change the nature of what it is.”

The Government Hypocrisy

Schiff’s libertarian ethics were at the fore when discussing Bitcoin’s political co-option: “It’s kind of ironic that something that was created to be anti-government is now completely dependent on government. I don’t think we’d have Bitcoin over 100,000 right now if it wasn’t for the election of Donald Trump and what’s going on with the government to try to misdirect resources into Bitcoin.” His solution? “I’ve got no problem if the people in this room want to waste their money buying Bitcoin. It’s a free country. But where I do have a problem is when you bribe the politicians to buy Bitcoin with my money because I don’t want to buy Bitcoin and I don’t think the US government should be buying Bitcoin.

The Cult Accusation

Schiff’s final salvo was perhaps his most inflammatory: “To me it’s like a giant cult and you’re worshiping this god – Nakamoto is the Lord and everybody just believes… ‘I’m going to buy Bitcoin and I’m never going to sell it. Never sell your Bitcoin.’ You know who got you to never sell your Bitcoin? The whales that are selling you their Bitcoin. Where do you think all the Bitcoin is coming from that everybody is buying? It’s the people who bought it a long time ago that are laughing all the way to the bank as they’re selling you their worthless tokens.”

The Uncomfortable Truth?

Love him or hate him, Peter Schiff walked into hostile territory and refused to back down from his convictions. In a room of 30,000 believers, he stood alone and called Bitcoin exactly what he sees it as: a speculative mania built on faith rather than fundamentals.

Whether he’s a prophet or a dinosaur, one thing is certain: Peter Schiff just delivered a savage Bitcoin takedown at a Bitcoin conference – and he did it right to their faces. Personally, I’ve been a fan of Schiff since his epic rants about the US sub-prime mortgage bubble in 2006 and 2007 convinced me the buy a bunch of gold.  But of course the question me and everybody else has now is – will history prove him right again?