Peter Schiff says Bitcoin could fall below $16,500 by year-end if $50,000 breaks
In brief
- Peter Schiff said a Bitcoin break below $50,000 could lead to a drop under $16,500.
- Schiff said a retest of the 2022 low before year-end wouldn't surprise him.
- Bitcoin traded at $65,850 and Ethereum at $1,851 on Nov. 14, per CryptoSlate data.
- Schiff warned about Strategy, which reported holding 850,364 BTC in its Nov. 9 filing.
What Schiff said
In a 05:53 GMT post, Schiff said a break of $50,000 could lead to a fast move back to Bitcoin's 2022 low. He added that a retest before year-end wouldn't surprise him.
"a quick trip to the 2022 low below $16.5K."
The call isn't new for him. On Feb. 19 he said a break below $50,000 would make a $20,000 test highly likely, and on June 2 he said the same break should be followed by a quick fall below $20,000. In a later Saturday post, Schiff argued that likely buyers were already invested and that AI had pulled attention away from Bitcoin. He also claimed hacking risk was rising and said the Trump-driven rally was over (those are his opinions, not established facts).
Where prices stood
CryptoSlate data at 15:02 GMT showed Bitcoin at $65,850, down 4.36% over 24 hours and 47.82% below its Oct. 6, 2025 all-time high of $126,198. Ethereum traded at $1,851 at 15:03 GMT, down 4.95%. Those readings are snapshots, not live prices.
Schiff also posted about Ethereum at 13:30 GMT, saying a break of an uptrend around $1,600 could bring the next support at what he called the 2022 low just below $1,000. ETH was 62.64% below its Aug. 24, 2025 high of $4,954 but still above that $1,600 line. His Ethereum post didn't carry the year-end timeframe.
Neither of his first triggers had been hit.
The Strategy angle
Schiff tied the forecast to Strategy, the Bitcoin-holding company whose common stock trades as MSTR, saying a year-end retest would mean "curtains for $MSTR." Strategy's Nov. 9 filing reported 850,364 BTC as of Nov. 8, bought for about $64 billion at an average cost of $75,456 per bitcoin (including fees and expenses). The filing also reported about $5 billion in a USD Reserve for preferred-stock dividends and debt interest, plus $146 million in USD Cash.
CryptoSlate noted those balances don't show that a fall to Schiff's target would force Strategy to sell Bitcoin or shut down. It's also not his first shot at the company; CryptoSlate reported in March on his objections to Strategy's preferred-stock funding model.
