'Bitcoin Just Starting to Go Down': Peter Schiff Says on BTC Price Drop

Cryptocurrencies fell to begin the week in red, extending the price drop from the past few weeks, which resulted in the market’s worst October in years. At press time, Bitcoin was trading down 3.18% in the last 24 hours and down 6.99% in the last seven days.

The market drop came with no immediate catalysts, implying potential profit-taking over the weekend following an increase in prices in the past week. Some traders suggested that a lack of perceived fundamentals on the market may have impacted sentiment.

Amid the price drop, Bitcoin long-term critic Peter Schiff took to X to highlight his usual criticism of the cryptocurrency.

In an initial tweet, Schiff said that Bitcoin was back below its high from January 2025 compared to Nasdaq and gold, which are 18% and 42% above their respective January highs, asking why Bitcoin has made no progress despite the rise in both risk-on and risk-off assets.

This claim was quickly rebuffed by crypto community members, including Binance cofounder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who asked Schiff to consider the one-year Bitcoin chart. CZ shared the screenshot of Bitcoin’s one-year chart provided by CoinMarketCap, which indicated a rise of 57.52% yearly.

Bitcoin stopped going up?

Schiff seemed to admit this point, weakly chipping in, “Bitcoin has stopped going up. That’s my point. That likely means its only just starting to go down.”

Bitcoin’s recent drop mirrored earlier losses seen in the precious metals sector; gold steadied around $4,000 per ounce on Monday following an earlier drop sparked by China’s move to end tax rebates for certain gold retailers — a policy adjustment that might reduce demand in one of the world’s largest bullion markets. Even before the announcement, gold’s record-breaking rally was beginning to weaken.

In a recent tweet, Santiment noted that Bitcoin’s large holders are taking profit, contributing to BTC’s price drop. According to Santiment, key stakeholders with 10-10,000 BTC now hold 13.68 million BTC, totaling 68.62% of all Bitcoin. Going into the last all-time high, they accumulated about 110,010 coins between Aug. 22 and Oct. 12 but have reduced their holdings by 23,200 coins since then.