Reports of Bitcoin’s Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

Due to the recent price action we can expect to see a sharp increase in Bitcoin hit pieces appearing in mainstream media over the coming weeks. In newsrooms everywhere, click-hungry hacks masquerading as reputable journalists are already penning their latest Bitcoin obituaries.

The legacy media have announced Bitcoin’s death prematurely hundreds of times already over the years, but why let a little thing like accuracy or informed reporting stand in the way of a good story?

The Financial Times already came out swinging this week with their latest poorly researched hit piece titled “Bitcoin is still about $70,000 too high”, written by Jemima Kelly.

This isn’t the first time the FT has declared Bitcoin worthless. Jemima has been trying to dunk on Bitcoin since 2015 when it was priced at just $300, while her colleague Katie Martin spent last year trying to work out why it’s worth more than her teeth.

These are deeply unserious people.

Unfortunately, Jemima’s understanding doesn’t seem to have progressed much since 2015. Despite having more than 10 years to study Bitcoin, instead of addressing any of the genuine challenges it faces, her latest article is filled with vacuous nonsense and nothing of actual substance.

Not to mention a lot of the analogies sound suspiciously AI generated.

Grok… is that you?

Why Bitcoin upsets Jemima so much is uncertain, but as her salary fails to outpace inflation, and the amount of Bitcoin she can afford plummets year-on-year, hers is a story of a woman falling from a 50-storey building. At each floor, as she falls, she comforts herself by repeating: Mais au moins je peux parler français [At least I can speak French].

Amusez-vous à rester pauvre Jemima!

The hacks at the Financial Times don’t understand Bitcoin, and any readers unfortunate enough to have been influenced by their consistently poor reporting over the years have missed out on increasing their wealth by over 23,000%. Which helps to explain why they have to offer deep discounts to potential new subscribers.

Unfortunately, even with a 40% dip, the FT is still priced about $299 too high.

What you should expect in the coming weeks is a lot more of the same. Bitcoin critics will continue to climb out of whatever hole they’ve been hiding in for the past two years, old FUD will be recycled, and your sanity will be tested to near breaking point when even some of your no-coiner friends work up the courage to make cheap jokes at your expense.

Nobody promised that understanding sound money before everyone else wouldn’t be frustrating.

On the bright side, Bitcoiners always get the last laugh.

So this week, let’s remind ourselves how catastrophically wrong the mainstream media has been about Bitcoin over the last decade, and why keeping receipts of their bad takes has become the favorite hobby of many Bitcoiners.

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Bitcoin is ‘Dead’…. Again

Bitcoin has ‘died’ and been reincarnated so often you’d be forgiven for thinking it was Buddhist. Despite consistently reaching new all-time-highs every cycle, each pullback along the way is hailed as Bitcoin’s last gasp by those either too ignorant to study it, or too threatened by its success.

We call this strange phenomenon ‘having fun staying poor’.

Bitcoin has been declared dead so many times that it’s become a bit of a running joke. So much so, that people have even created websites that track the various obituaries written about it over the years.

The website Bitcoin Deaths has recorded a total of 464 obituaries since 2010 and even provides a convenient tool to show you how much your Bitcoin would be worth now had you invested just $100 into it each time one was published. So far, for a total investment of just $46,400 you would now be sitting on a whopping $72,580,939!

Bitcoin obituaries have never signalled its imminent demise, but they have been great buying signals.

Here are some of the most ridiculous examples we’ve seen over the years:

Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman, the 2008 Nobel Prize winner in Economic Sciences is no stranger to making bold bearish predictions whenever Bitcoin suffers a dip in price. In July 2018, after Bitcoin had crashed from ~$20k to ~$7k Krugman found the nerve to declare that “total collapse was a real possibility”.

Krugman didn’t get to celebrate for long and was left mystified at Bitcoin’s return to new all-time highs. By March 2021 he had resorted to calling Bitcoin a “300-year evolutionary regression”, which is an odd critique for a breakthrough in computer science. Although it is on brand, Krugman is famous for making poor predictions about technology.

Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger

It isn’t just hapless academics who have been embarrassingly wrong about Bitcoin over the years. Even world-famous investors like Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger have been humbled frequently.

In 2017 Buffet called Bitcoin a “bubble”. In 2018 he claimed it would come to a “bad ending”. In 2020 he stated it had “no value”. And in 2022 he stated he “wouldn’t pay $25 for all the Bitcoin in the world”, which is fortunate, because nobody would sell him more than 0.00036 BTC for $25 today.

Buffet’s partner in crime, the late Charlie Munger, was equally disparaging. At various points over the years he described Bitcoin as “total insanity”, “worthless artificial gold” and even “venereal disease”. Unsurprisingly, he was also convinced Bitcoin would go to zero.

These examples highlight that even predictions made by world-famous investors can age like milk. Just because you understand the fiat financial system does not necessarily mean you’re equipped to understand a paradigm shifting technology like Bitcoin.

The next time you hear a ‘financial guru’ confidently proclaim Bitcoin’s demise, just remember that even the ‘Oracle of Omaha’ has been way off the mark for almost a decade.

Jamie Dimon

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, and financial service provider to Jeffrey Epstein, has spent years as one of Bitcoin's most vocal critics. In September 2017, when Bitcoin was trading at just $4,100, Dimon proclaimed it was "worse than tulip bulbs" and warned that "someone is going to get killed". He even threatened to fire any JPMorgan trader caught dealing in Bitcoin for being "stupid".

By January 2018, Dimon had somewhat sheepishly admitted he "regretted" calling it a fraud, though this moment of humility didn't last long. By 2022 he was back at it, calling Bitcoin a "decentralized Ponzi scheme", and in 2023 declared "if I was the government, I'd close it down".

Had you listened to this duplicitous banker you would have avoided Bitcoin while JP Morgan was quietly positioning itself to profit from it. The bank is now an authorized participant for BlackRock's Spot Bitcoin ETF. Did he suddenly realize Bitcoin is valuable? Or was he purposefully misleading you all along?

Since Dimon first declared Bitcoin a fraud Bitcoin has increased in value by 2,800%, demonstrating why you should be careful listening to ‘reputable’ voices telling you that Bitcoin is going to fail. Especially when it poses a threat to their business model.

Jamie mistaking Bitcoin for a fraud or a ponzi scheme is surprising given he’s an expert in such matters. We all remember his bank having to pay $2.6bn in fines for their role in the famous Madoff Ponzi.

Peter Schiff

If there were a Hall of Fame for being spectacularly wrong about Bitcoin, Peter Schiff would be in it. The gold bug economist has declared Bitcoin dead an astounding 18 times. That’s more than Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, and Jamie Dimon combined.

Schiff has spent years performing premature victory laps, only to be humbled when Bitcoin reaches new all-time highs. His most embarrassing call came in May 2019 when, with Bitcoin trading at $7,624, he dismissed it outright stating: "It's worth nothing. if people suddenly lose their confidence, its real worth is $0".

Bitcoin then proceeded to surge to $69,000 by late 2021. A staggering 900% gain that thoroughly demolished his prediction.

Yet Schiff learned nothing from this humiliation and continued to make countless more ridiculous statements. In February 2022, he proclaimed "Bitcoin won't be around a decade from now" when the price was $40,559, before it nearly tripled to $108,000 by late 2024.

Then just 4 months later in June, once Bitcoin had pulled back to $18,949 and he felt safe to do so, he declared that “Bitcoin will not recover”.

It then proved him wrong again and surged 500% to new all-time highs…

So, why does Peter Schiff feel the need to constantly attack Bitcoin? Well, just like Jamie Dimon, Warren Buffet, and Paul Krugman, it poses a direct threat to his business model. Dimon doesn’t want you to be your own bank, Warren benefits from fiat fuelled asset inflation, Krugman’s entire worldview relies on fiat alchemy, and Peter wants you to buy Gold instead of Bitcoin.

When you understand the incentives at play, it becomes much easier to ignore their manufactured hysteria.

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Embrace Volatility – The Bitcoin Way

As you can see, reports of Bitcoin’s death have always been greatly exaggerated.

Nevertheless, now that we’re experiencing one of Bitcoin’s signature pullbacks, you can guarantee the same familiar faces will start coming out of the woodwork to once again declare that Bitcoin is heading to zero.

Over the coming weeks, journalists that couldn’t tell a UTXO from a UFO and people who have a vested interest in seeing Bitcoin fail, will start to lay it on thick. You can expect to hear all the old classics like “Bitcoin has no intrinsic value”, and “Bitcoin isn’t backed by anything”. And for the true connoisseur, “Quantum Computing will Kill Bitcoin”.

None of these narratives are new, none of them are interesting anymore, and it’s all going to be quite tedious for a while. You can choose to believe these people despite their track record if you want, but if you think Bitcoin is going to zero, I have some bad news for you…

The best way to become immune to fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) is to improve your knowledge and your skills. Jemima from the FT thinks Bitcoin is going to zero, but Jemima hasn’t learned how to run a node, make secure air gapped transactions and probably can’t properly explain the difficulty adjustment.

When you understand what you hold, and know how to use it properly, your conviction becomes unshakeable and you can embrace the volatility. Bitcoin isn’t a speculative investment you gamble with; it’s your ticket to pure, permissionless freedom, and once you’ve tasted it, there’s no going back.

When you’re ready to experience unadulterated financial freedom, our experts are on hand to teach you everything you need to know. Just book a free 30-minute call to get started.