Trump the tulip king? Peter Schiff compares crypto hype to 17th century ‘madness’

Gold evangelist Peter Schiff is seeing red over Bitcoin — and he’s blaming President Donald Trump for wrapping a “decentralized Ponzi scheme” in the American flag.

Schiff argued that Trump’s crypto advocacy is accelerating the dollar’s collapse while creating false legitimacy around digital assets.

“By promoting domestic investment in Bitcoin and crypto, Trump is helping undermine the U.S. economy and speed up the dollar’s collapse,” Schiff posted on X.

He predicted that while Bitcoin (BTC) supporters may initially celebrate dollar weakness, gold will ultimately benefit as “Bitcoin will crash too.”

‘Decentralized Ponzi scheme’

Schiff dismissed recent cryptocurrency bills as attempts to “cloak Bitcoin—nothing more than a decentralized Ponzi scheme—in the trappings of legitimacy.” He accused industry insiders of using legislation to hype digital assets while planning exits at higher prices.

“The industry is using them to hype Bitcoin and other cryptos so insiders can cash out at higher prices. It’s a legislative low point,” Schiff wrote.

The economist’s criticism extends to stablecoin initiatives, which he views as ineffective tools for maintaining dollar dominance.

Schiff argued that stablecoins can be backed by any fiat currency and provide no inherent stability advantage.

“The hype that stablecoins will help secure the U.S. dollar’s dominance in global trade is nonsense,” Schiff stated. He emphasized that dollar-backed stablecoins are only as stable as the underlying currency, warning that “that ‘stability’ will soon give way.”

‘The Madness of Crowds’

Schiff invoked Charles Mackay’s “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds” to compare Bitcoin and digital assets to the Dutch tulip bubble.

He quoted Mackay’s observation that “every age has its peculiar folly” and identified digital tokens as the current era’s delusion. Schiff quoted:

The Dutch tulip bubble of the 1630s was a speculative frenzy in which tulip bulb prices soared to extreme heights before collapsing overnight, leaving many investors with worthless contracts. Often cited as the first recorded financial bubble, it has become a lasting symbol of irrational market mania.

Schiff noted that Dutch society once neglected ordinary industry for tulip trading and drew direct parallels to Bitcoin adoption.

“Just replace tulip with Bitcoin, and that sums it up perfectly,” Schiff concluded.

The economist’s warnings reveal his broader skepticism about monetary systems that are not backed by gold and his belief that cryptocurrency represents a dangerous speculative distraction from sound economic policy.