Schiff Calls Bitcoin a Loser, Saylor’s Chart Says Otherwise

• Schiff claims Bitcoin returned just 12% over five years against gold’s 163% gain.
• Saylor fires back with August 2020 data showing Bitcoin at 36% annualised return.
• Both sides accuse each other of cherry-picking different timeframes to win arguments.

Gold advocate Peter Schiff and Bitcoin proponent Michael Saylor are debating about Bitcoin again, and this time the argument has a number attached to it. Schiff opened the exchange on Sunday by pointing out that Bitcoin has returned just 12% over the past five years, while gold gained 163%, silver 181%, the S&P 500 59.4%, and the Nasdaq 57.4% over the same period. 

“If the appeal of Bitcoin is its superior long-term performance, why should anyone keep HODLing it?” Schiff wrote.

Saylor’s response was equally direct. He pointed to a different starting point entirely, August 2020, and published a chart showing Bitcoin’s annualized return at 36% since then, compared to 16% for gold, 15% for Nasdaq, 14% for the S&P 500, and negative 1% for bonds.

“Since Aug 2020, Bitcoin is the top-performing major asset and it’s not even close. Zoom out further and the gap only widens,” Saylor wrote.

Schiff Was Not Having It

The gold advocate replied, accusing Saylor of selecting a market bottom to flatter Bitcoin’s performance. “Stop cherry-picking low points to make your shitcoin look better.”

He then called for a public debate and offered to face two Bitcoin proponents simultaneously. “Two against one seems fair,” he said.

The cherry-picking argument then spilled into a separate thread. When another account pointed out that Bitcoin has outperformed everything over 15 years.

“Now you are cherry-picking. In five more years, when Bitcoin’s long-term performance is even worse, you will want to go back twenty years. When does it end?” Schiff said.

Then Grok Got Involved

Another voice entered the exchange when they asked Grok how many times Schiff had predicted Bitcoin’s death and what the return had been between his first and most recent call.

Schiff has made 22 documented Bitcoin death predictions, more than any other critic on record. His first came in 2011 when Bitcoin traded around $17. His most recent arrival was in February 2026, predicting an 85% crash to $10,000. Bitcoin’s return between those two calls: 376,000%.

Related: Michael Saylor Strategy Buys More Bitcoin Than BlackRock in 2026