Economist and gold advocate Peter Schiff is urging bitcoin holders to sell, warning that BTC’s slide below $75,000 leaves only “a short window before the crash.” Schiff made the call on Monday, Nov. 9, as bitcoin traded under key support while stocks and gold rose.
Schiff’s Sell Call
In a post on X, Schiff pointed to a divergence: “In case Bitcoiners haven’t noticed, the stock market is up big today, including tech and precious metals mining stocks, plus gold and silver. Yet Bitcoin is down again, trading below key support at $75K. There’s a short window before the crash. Make sure to sell before it closes.” He later added in a reply, “It’s undeniable that Bitcoin is going much lower. Sell it now before it does.”
Schiff has argued that bitcoin is failing a test other assets are passing. Since the midterm elections, U.S. stocks are basically flat while bitcoin is down more than 4%, he noted. Over the same period, gold is up more than 5%, silver almost 7%, and gold mining stocks more than 18%. “This is a sign of things to come. Invest accordingly,” he wrote.
Market Divergence
Monday’s trading fit that pattern: gold rose about 1.7% to settle at $4,141.14 an ounce, while bitcoin dropped to $73,477 as more than $1 billion in leveraged bets were wiped out. It later struggled below $75,000 and was trading near $74,600 at the time of writing.
Schiff has been circling the $75,000 level for over a month. On Oct. 24, with bitcoin just below $80,000, he said “the next stop is likely $75K” and warned that ETF holders faced “a very long weekend” because they could not sell until Monday. A week later, after gold’s own sharp drop, he called the metal’s selloff “an unexpected gift” for investors to buy more.
Signals Supporting Caution
Several indicators lend weight to Schiff’s caution. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs posted $1.28 billion in outflows last week, the largest weekly outflow in about four months. Bitcoin also closed below its 50-week moving average, ending a seven-week run of closes above it that had held even after Binance’s $6.3 billion hack.
Analyst Benjamin Cowen, who had argued all year that falling equities would drag bitcoin lower in the fourth quarter, said he sees more pain ahead for crypto. Selling pressure is also coming from miners: MARA disclosed on Monday that it sold 13,597 BTC after the third quarter to repay $750 million in loans.
Bulls Push Back
Not everyone agrees with Schiff. Analyst Sean Hagan called the current level “an excellent buying opportunity” for long-term believers. Derivatives market positioning also leans against Schiff’s call: about $1.3 billion in short positions would be liquidated if bitcoin climbed back to $79,000, compared with about $400 million in long risk down to $72,000.
Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood took the opposite side late yesterday, saying “gold is going down” and arguing that bitcoin will keep gaining on it.
