A recent claim by Peter Schiff, a well-known critic of Bitcoin and proponent of gold, suggests that Strategy’s investment in Bitcoin has only produced limited gains over the past five years. Schiff argues that if Michael Saylor had invested in other asset classes instead, the returns would have been significantly higher.
Schiff pointed out on his official X account that Strategy has been purchasing Bitcoin for half a decade at an average price of $75,000 per coin. He stated that this resulted in a mere 16% paper profit overall, translating to an annualized return slightly above 3%.
During Monday’s trading session, shares of Strategy (MSTR) declined further amid what has already been a challenging year for the stock. Often regarded as a stand-in for Bitcoin exposure, MSTR is down by approximately 46% so far in 2025.
Following Schiff’s remarks, several market experts criticized his interpretation. Willy Woo, a respected analyst in the crypto space, argued that Schiff incorrectly calculated Strategy’s performance by assuming all Bitcoin purchases occurred simultaneously rather than accounting for their staggered timing. This led to misleading conclusions about actual returns.
“That’s my quant. He doesn’t even speak English.”
You need one of those Peter before you post your math.
You averaged the cost basis but didn’t average the time basis.
Scam maths.
Venture capitalist Revaz Shmertz also disputed Schiff’s comparison methodology. He emphasized that dividing total paper profits evenly across five years ignores how investment returns are truly measured when acquisitions happen at different times throughout the period.
Peter, that’s not how returns work. You can’t divide paper profit by five years when buys are staggered across the whole period.
And “any other asset” is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
Now I ask you:
– Which asset?
– With what drawdown tolerance?
– At what entry timing?…
This morning Strategy revealed it had acquired an additional 1,229 Bitcoins — raising its total holdings to approximately 672,497 BTC. Alongside growing its cryptocurrency reserves steadily over time, the company also increased its cash reserves to $2.2 billion to cover upcoming financial commitments without needing to sell any Bitcoins prematurely.
Data from TradingView indicates that over these last five years leading up to December 30th, Bitcoin’s price surged roughly 219%, climbing from around $27,400 up to nearly $87,700 per coin. The precious metal gold appreciated just over 130% during this same timeframe.