U.S. economist says gold’s rally makes Bitcoin obsolete

Following gold’s massive rally, economist and long-time Bitcoin (BTC) critic Peter Schiff has reignited his feud with the cryptocurrency industry by declaring that gold is now the biggest threat to the flagship decentralized finance (DeFi) asset.

As it happens, Schiff argued that Bitcoin’s popularity had risen mainly because gold had stagnated for over a decade, but now that gold is surging again, the case for the maiden crypto asset is fading, according to his X post shared on October 19.

The gold vs. Bitcoin debate reignites

Indeed, the remark comes as gold prices hit record highs. Schiff, a self-described ‘hard money advocate,’ has long warned that crypto is a speculative bubble detached from intrinsic value, while gold remains a proven store of wealth.

Once again, Schiff’s latest post has polarized financial communities online. His comments also come as the crypto market capitalization has neared $4 trillion, and Bitcoin is consolidating around $110,000. For Schiff, however, this only underscores what he sees as irrational speculation.

On the other hand, popular crypto trading expert Michaël van de Poppe has drawn parallels between gold’s shocking rise in value and crypto’s current stage, opining that digital assets could soon mirror gold’s massive multi-trillion-dollar rally.

Another crypto analyst, Ash Crypto, also believes that Bitcoin’s recovery from last week’s correction was the result of the money flowing from gold and into the crypto asset, expecting higher prices for BTC in the coming weeks and days as gold gradually slows down.

Meanwhile, the crypto market’s representative asset is changing hands at the price of $111,077.03, which suggests an increase of 3.14% in the last 24 hours, in the face of a 3.36% dip across the previous seven days and an accumulated decline of 4.09% on its monthly chart, per the latest data.

All things considered, the renewed rally in gold does give weight to Schiff’s position, at least among traditional investors. Yet Bitcoin’s expanding adoption curve and institutional inflows show that the two assets may no longer compete for the same audience.