Gold Bug Peter Schiff Urges Traders to Buy His Ordinals Amid Bitcoin’s Surge
With Bitcoin surpassing all-time highs by the hour, even noted Bitcoin skeptic Peter Schiff is trying to get in on the action by selling his Ordinals collection.
On Sunday, the financial commentator and radio host said on X (formerly Twitter) that the Peter Schiff Ordinals collection, also known as the Golden Triumph Ordinals Set, would go up for sale on Magic Eden.
Bitcoin surged past $80,000 Sunday in the crypto-optimistic wake of Donald Trump’s election victory last week. It has since passed the $87,000 mark.
Launched in 2023, the “Golden Triumph Ordinals Set” is a collection of 51 Ordinal inscriptions on the Bitcoin Blockchain. Similar to a non-fungible token (NFT), a Bitcoin Ordinal is a digital collectible on the Bitcoin blockchain. Each Ordinal is inscribed on an individual satoshi, the smallest denomination of a Bitcoin. Ordinals have included text, images, video clips, and even video games on the Bitcoin network.
The current floor price for one of the Schiff NFTs is 0.1245 BTC, around $10,774 for each collectible, according to Magic Eden data. Despite having a low trading volume, the Schiff NFTs rose 149% last year with an original price of 0.05 BTC, around $1,885.
“There’s 21 million Bitcoin but only 50 Golden Triumph ordinals. It’s clear which one is more valuable,” Schiff tweeted. “You can’t argue with math.”
It’s unclear if Schiff is attempting to profit from Bitcoin mania. The gold bug did not immediately return a request for comment.
Crypto Twitter reacted to Schiff’s tweet with a mix of surprise and skepticism.
Peter Schiff promoting Ordinals is not something I had on my 2024 bingo card https://t.co/N2m7pvCDfP
— Chris ☕️ (@ChrisCoffeeEth) November 11, 2024
id rather buy a pet rock pic.twitter.com/bVqhBtlaS8
— kitty (🪨,🪨) (@0xkitty69) November 10, 2024
Peter, it’s very clear that your bearish sentiment about Bitcoin (which has been wrong) is a great engagement farming strategy. I have to give it to you.
But it’s time for you to join us for real 🤗
— Jan | BIP-420🐱 (@nonfungible_jan) November 11, 2024
Despite Schiff announcing the sale of the Ordinals collection, he claimed not to own a Bitcoin wallet himself or ownership of the collection.
“The ordinals belong to the people who bought them in the original auction,” he said.
No me. Whoever sells their ordinal gets your Bitcoin. I don’t even have a wallet.
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) November 10, 2024
When asked why someone would part with the increasingly valuable Bitcoin for one of his NFTs, Schiff said it was because of scarcity.
“Why is Bitcoin more valuable,” Schiff said. “The Golden Triumph originals are way more scarce than Bitcoin.”
Schiff has consistently argued that gold is a better investment than Bitcoin, comparing it to Tulip mania.
On Monday, he decried Trump’s vow to establish a Bitcoin Reserve, prognosticating that such a move would cause a massive market meltdown.
“To maintain the pretense that its Bitcoin reserve has actual value, the U.S. government would be forced to keep buying, destroying the value of the dollar in the process.” he tweeted.
If the U.S. government actually established a #Bitcoin reserve and bought 1 million Bitcoin, it might end up buying millions more. Since the U.S. government’s purchase of 1 million Bitcoin would drive the price so high, many HODLers, then worth millions or billions, would finally…
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) November 11, 2024
In any case, it appears as though Schiff wants a piece of the action after more than a decade of denial. Welcome aboard.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair and Josh Quittner