American media personality Tucker Carlson pressed gold advocate Peter Schiff on whether Bitcoin could replace the US dollar as a global reserve asset during a recent interview focused on the future of money.
Schiff argued that Bitcoin is a speculative asset with “no actual use,” warning that proposals for a US Bitcoin reserve would amount to a taxpayer-funded bailout for early adopters.
“That is the sole source of demand,”
Schiff said, claiming people buy Bitcoin only because they expect the price to rise, unlike productive investments or commodities with industrial use.
Carlson questioned how Bitcoin differs from gold or stocks, prompting Schiff to argue that Bitcoin is a non-income-producing digital asset with no non-monetary demand.
When Carlson raised the idea of Bitcoin as a potential global reserve as confidence in the dollar erodes, Schiff dismissed it as unrealistic, describing reserve proposals as a “Bitcoin bailout fund.”
Instead, Schiff promoted gold as “real money,” citing its use in jewellery, electronics and medicine, and said tokenised, fully backed gold could enable digital payments without inflation.
The debate comes as gold prices hit new record highs above $5,000 an ounce while Bitcoin briefly dipped below $86,000, highlighting a growing divergence between the two assets.
At the time of reporting, Bitcoin price was $88,888.93.