When it comes to investing in cryptos, everyone has an opinion.
Bitcoin bulls and bears… blockchain skeptics and pioneers…
Even investment legends like Warren Buffett and goldbug Peter Schiff have given their advice and opinions on cryptos.
Don’t listen to them.
I’m not throwing stones at anyone here. Only pointing out that you need to pay attention to whom you pay attention…
It’s important to avoid the doomsday skeptics who drive fear—those who are extreme for the sake of being extreme.
Enter longtime bitcoin critic Schiff…
The forever goldbug has made a number of comments in favor of gold and against just about everything else. Sometimes, he raises some good points—like owning gold as a hedge against the growing U.S. national debt—but most of his advice is overshadowed by Schiff’s delivery. He ends up sounding like a doomsday movie promoter… everything is seconds from disaster.
Last month, Schiff took to Twitter to voice (again) how “bad” an idea bitcoin is after claiming all of his bitcoin had disappeared…
I just lost all the #Bitcoin I have ever owned. My wallet got corrupted somehow and my password is no longer valid. So now not only is my Bitcoin intrinsically worthless; it has no market value either. I knew owning Bitcoin was a bad idea, I just never realized it was this bad! pic.twitter.com/6SJvDJOZU6
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) January 19, 2020
But it turned out to be an almost comical case of user error.
Schiff had apparently mistaken a PIN for a password, got a password error… and assumed his account had been somehow hacked or corrupted.
In the end, everything was OK with Schiff’s wallet and bitcoin… But he didn’t retract his statement slamming bitcoin.
And Schiff isn’t the only high-profile investor to bash cryptos…
Warren Buffett—arguably the greatest investor of all time—called bitcoin “rat poison squared.” And yet despite his persistence in labeling bitcoin a bad investment, Buffett admits he’d never short even a “dime’s worth” of the crypto.
And for good reason…
Bitcoin is trading just over $10,000 per coin at the time of this writing… a long way from its record high of $20,000, but significantly higher than where it was trading 10 years ago (about $0.08).
And ironically enough, the bitcoin doom-and-gloom types actually end up having a positive effect on the crypto. According to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (“CZ”), negativism toward cryptos tends to push investors in the opposite direction.
The lesson? Be careful about who you listen to for advice, and on what topic.
Don’t let someone—regardless of their wealth, or their experience in another area—give you advice on something they know little to nothing about. Investment knowledge and expertise aren’t universal across all investments.
Michael Jordan is arguably the greatest basketball player of all time… but when he tried professional baseball he never left the minor leagues.
Buffett is an amazing stock investor… Peter Schiff knows gold like few others… But their opinions on bitcoin? Irrelevant.
The world is big enough for gold, stocks, cash, and cryptos… It doesn’t have to be one or another. Don’t let experts cause you to miss out on opportunities because they’re in the mood to make headlines.
