Strategy increased its BTC market share from 2.76% to 3.9%, a 40% increase in ownership concentration, but the price still fell by around 30%.
Last year, at the Bitcoin conference in Las Vegas, Peter Schiff advised people to sell their BTC holdings. At the time, the cryptocurrency was valued at around $110,000 as it benefited from the hype of Bitcoin cash companies.
Today, with the 2026 rally, BTC is trading near $77,000 and, according to Schiff, this drop shows that the new pitch presented at this year’s event won’t do anything for the asset’s price either.
What Schiff said then, what he says now, and why the gap matters
At the 2025 conference, Schiff took the stage and told attendees to sell. The crowd was immersed in the narrative of the Bitcoin cash company, the idea that publicly traded companies handling Bitcoin would continue to drive up the price.
A year later, the asset is down about 30%, and the new hot talk of the 2026 event is “digital credit,” which Schiff says isn’t going anywhere either.
“Last year the hype was that Bitcoin cash companies were near the top,” he wrote on X. “This year it’s digital credit, which will explode soon.”
The economist also analyzed Bitcoin accumulation figures from Strategy. A year ago, the company held 2.76% of the total supply. Today it is 3.9%, a 40% increase in market share, and the price continues to fall. Schiff’s question, simply put, is: If the strategy hits 5% by next year’s conference, why would that be any different?
The strategy actually continued to buy. On the day the conference started, she picked up an additional 3,273 BTC for around $255 million, bringing her total to 818,334 BTC purchased for around $61.8 billion, or an average of around $75,500 per BTC.
Schiff also targeted Strategy’s STRC preferred stock. In an X Space live on April 23, he called it an “obvious Ponzi scheme” and spent about two hours explaining why.
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His argument was simple: STRC pays its holders an 11.5% annual return in monthly cash distributions, and Strategy’s software business doesn’t generate enough revenue to cover that amount. So where does the money come from?
“The 11.5% return on STRC is paid for by selling more shares of STRC, and you then get money from the new investors to pay the old investors,” the gold bug claimed.
Schiff’s critics have a long memory
The reaction to X was predictable and not particularly favorable to Schiff. Trader Mr. Anderson posted a thread of screenshots dating back to November 2013, when Schiff was warning people not to buy Bitcoin at $764.
There are subsequent calls at $566, $3,870, $4,023, $7,220 and $5,341. Bitcoin has multiplied several times from each of these prices.
“You said this from $700 to $126,000,” the post read. “Saying, ‘I was right,’ after all, tells us everything we need to know about your opinion.”
Analyst Josh Mandell offered a different type of objection:
“You can’t take credit for telling people to take profits on something you never suggested they buy in the first place.”
At the April 28 conference, Saylor told the crowd he believed a supply shock was happening. His reasoning is that between $20 billion and $100 billion in new bank credit could flow into Bitcoin over the next 12 months, from institutions including JP Morgan, Citigroup, Schwab, Morgan Stanley and Barclays, compared to around $10 billion of BTC he says is “naturally available for sale.”
His conclusion was that prices were expected to rise and the rally would lead to a rise in Bitcoin treasury stocks and demand for digital credit products.
