Gold bug and Bitcoin detractor Peter Schiff posted some rather controversial posts criticizing Tesla’s recent investment, to which Elon Musk responded with an “eggplant.”
Bitcoin (BTC), the star cryptocurrency of the week, fell more than 20% on February 22 and 23, going from a value of almost $58.000 USD to just $45.500 USD, causing a series of ruthless liquidations in the positions of many traders and investors, which were accompanied by strong criticism of the very controversial and controversial Peter Schiff, known as a staunch defender of gold and detractor of Bitcoin.
Schiff lashed out at Elon Musk, one of the richest men in the world and owner of Tesla, who recently invested $1.500 billion in Bitcoin, when its value was around $40.000 to $45.000 USD per unit in January. In his messages, Schiff points out that Musk's investment in Bitcoin is a bad example for other institutional investors, as the company's shares are in the red after Musk revealed his investment in the cryptocurrency. In response to Schiff's onslaught, Musk responded to the controversial American economic commentator and stockbroker with a eggplant.
Musk's clear response was quite unexpected but forceful in the face of Schiff's criticism, and it caught the attention of everyone in the crypto community, even Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, who is surprised when searching and knowing its meaning.
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More recriminations from Schiff
Peter Schiff, who is also the chairman and owner of Euro Pacific Capital, was not at all pleased when Musk responded with an “eggplant,” so the economic commentator continued to attack Musk, pointing out that his response was not appropriate for someone of his intellect and that he expected much more from the renowned physicist and entrepreneur; in addition, Schiff he criticized who basically called him an idiot.
Other Musk users and followers were also quick to respond to Schiff's criticism, pointing out that despite the stock losses, Tesla's gains from its Bitcoin investment have been very good. Even well-known Bitcoin and cryptocurrency analyst, Willie Woo, made his appearance in the dispute to remind Schiff that he should “take a short position leveraged 10 times”, in the gold market, to achieve the same type of returns that Tesla achieved on Bitcoin.
There are also those who took the opportunity to remind Schiff that he has been wrong about Bitcoin over the past 10 years, where the cryptocurrency has continued to lead the markets, growing by more than 100.000%.
Against Michael Saylor
As Peter Schiff never misses an opportunity to speak badly about Bitcoin, he also took the opportunity to direct his criticism towards Michael saylor, MicroStrategy CEO and a personal Bitcoin investor. In a tweet, Schiff described how he believes Saylor is manipulating markets for personal gain, noting that “privileged employees” at MicroStrategy are buying bitcoins “knowing that both the purchase and the announcement of the purchase will move the price higher” of the cryptocurrency, and when that happens, they sell their holdings.
At the time of writing, MicroStrategy's CEO has not responded to Schiff's comments; on the contrary, he has been busy enjoying the opportunity he recently had to talk about Bitcoin and all its benefits during his interview on CNBC, where he stated that in 2026 there will be more than 1.000 billion users using the cryptocurrency, which will also play a fundamental role within corporate treasuries.
Regarding the interview, Schiff also lashed out against CNBC, saying that a media outlet of its stature should be ashamed of itself for giving Saylor a space to talk about Bitcoin. Schiff's venomous comments have been met with a response from hundreds of users, who have also sent the businessman a few eggplants.
While all this is happening, Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square and Twitter, announced the investment of another $170 million in Bitcoin, through Square, which now has more than 8.000 BTC on its balance sheet.
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