Peter Schiff accuses Michael Saylor and CNBC of “pumping” Bitcoin

An American stock broker and gold advocate Peter Schiff criticized MicroStrategy ex-CEO Michael Saylor and CNBC for advertising Bitcoin, accusing them of pumping the coin. His comment is fascinating given that the SEC recently fined model Kim Kardashian for illegally dumping EthereumMax (EMAX) coins.

The real pumpers

To remind you, the model was fined $1.2M, but according to Peter Schiff, this is not entirely fair because other influencers made even more money from pumping coins, and they got away with it. In particular, the broker highlighted former Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor and CNBC. As a reminder, the latter received millions for advertising cryptocurrencies and later pumped bitcoin by giving industry participants airtime. 

 

Saylor noted that Bitcoin is not a commodity but security, and its promotion is as legal as advertising “steel, aluminum, concrete, glass or granite.” He added that the BTC network is an open protocol, offering practical benefits similar to roads, rails, radio, telephone, television, internet, or English. 

Is Bitcoin a commodity, or not?

Blockstream co-founder and CEO Adam Back agreed with Saylor’s opinion, who pointed out that the SEC had previously recognized BTC as a security under the Howey test (a test to determine whether a financial transaction means investing in security). The businessman explained that Bitcoin is more like digital gold than security. Saylor can talk about it in the same way that standard asset enthusiasts can talk about physical gold. 

 

Schiff doesn’t think regulators correctly classified BTC because the coin “doesn’t have a single characteristic of a real commodity,” ending up criticizing Bitcoin again, which is nothing new on his part. 

However, no matter what keeps spinning, regulators are ready to recognize Ethereum as a commodity finally. Schiff says the SEC has the last word. One way or another, the planet called Crypto keeps spinning, and regulators are ready to finally recognize Ethereum as a commodity as well.