• Peter Schiff expects Bitcoin’s decline to accelerate after it breaks below $50,000, and he allows for a retest of the 2022 low below $16,500.
  • The economist said Strategy may face the need to sell MSTR shares or bitcoin to support the price of STRC preferred securities.
  • Amid Bitcoin’s correction, with it trading near $67,000, Schiff urged investors to pay attention to gold.

Economist and long-time Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff published a series of posts on X in which he predicted a further decline in the leading cryptocurrency and warned about risks for Strategy. In his view, after breaking the $50,000 mark, the sell-off could accelerate, and the asset could return to levels below $16,500 seen in 2022. 

The Bitcoin collapse is gathering steam. I expect the momentum to pick up once Bitcoin breaks $50K. In fact, once it does, it could be a quick trip to the 2022 low below $16.5K. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a retest of that level before year-end. If so, it’s curtains for $MSTR.

At the time of writing, bitcoin was trading near $67,000, according to TradingView.

Schiff Expects the Bearish Trend to Continue

According to the economist’s comments, Bitcoin’s 22% drop over the past seven weeks has not yet been accompanied by signs of panic selling or a broad investor capitulation that could indicate a local bottom is forming.

“The Bitcoin collapse is gathering steam. I expect the momentum to pick up once Bitcoin breaks $50K. In fact, once it does, it could be a quick trip to the 2022 low below $16.5K. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a retest of that level before year-end,” Schiff wrote.

“The Bitcoin collapse is gathering steam. I expect the momentum to pick up once Bitcoin breaks $50K. In fact, once it does, it could be a quick trip to the 2022 low below $16.5K. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a retest of that level before year-end,” Schiff wrote.

Earlier, the crypto skeptic had predicted that the asset could drop below $20,000, and that the market was still far from forming a bottom. He also suggested that such a crash could signal trouble for other risky assets.

He also drew attention to the asset’s annual performance: by his calculations, bitcoin, for the first time in its 18-year history, ended the year in the red in 2025 — down 6.34%, and in 2026 it lost another 16.5%. Schiff warned that a third consecutive year of negative performance in 2027 would be a break from the historical trend.

In a brief exchange with crypto expert Anthony Pompliano, Schiff rejected the idea that the current drop is just a normal short-term correction: he noted that the price has returned to levels from five years ago, and said the long-term bull trend is over. 

@APompliano It also fell to prices you’ve seen over five years ago. The long-term bull market in Bitcoin is over. The long-term bear market still has a long way to go.

Pompliano, for his part, joked that bitcoin is falling to prices not seen three months ago, and that AI and the first cryptocurrency are now “one big trade.”

Schiff separately criticized media comparisons of bitcoin to gold. In his view, these assets are falling for different reasons: gold is reacting to expectations around interest rates and inflation, while he links the decline of the first cryptocurrency to the end of a speculative bubble.

Schiff Warned of Risks for Strategy

Schiff paid particular attention to Strategy’s financial model and its preferred shares, STRC. He claims the company has less than $5 billion in available dollar liquidity to buy back nearly $8 billion worth of STRC securities outstanding.

As Bitcoin keeps falling, more $STRC shareholders will sell to reduce their risk. But $MSTR has less than $5 billion in dollar liquidity available to buy back nearly $8 billion in outstanding STRC. Eventually Strategy must dump MSTR shares or Bitcoin to keep STRC near par.

In his view, if STRC holders start selling assets to reduce risk, Strategy will ultimately have to sell common MSTR shares or bitcoin to keep the preferred shares’ price near par.

Recall that Schiff had already criticized STRC’s yield model: he questioned the claim that bitcoin growing by 2% per year could cover the instrument’s 11.5% dividend rate. In his view, expanding issuance could lead to a “death spiral” if Strategy has to sell assets to pay investors.

Later, the economist said that Michael Saylor and Strategy misled investors after STRC fell to $82.5 against a $100 par value. He also suggested at the time that Saylor could end up in prison.

At the same time, Schiff called gold a more attractive alternative. He noted that after rising 5% on the back of the Democrats’ victory, the metal later lost more than 6% due to fears of a potential 50-basis-point rate hike by the Federal Reserve. He called gold’s drop below $4,000 a “gift” for buyers.

Meanwhile, CryptoQuant analysts estimated bitcoin’s decline at about 19% from its peak — more than the average correction in bull cycles, which stands at 14.39%.