On Monday, gold bug and economist Peter Schiff and MicroStrategy CEO, Michael Saylor engaged in a heated debate over Twitter about Bitcoin.

The Bitcoin Spat Between Peter Schiff and Michael Saylor

Schiff tweeted that CEOs who followed Saylor’s “asinine advice to plug their balance sheets into Bitcoin” to hedge against a 2% annual inflation rate are experiencing 17 years’ worth of predicted inflation losses, with their “hedge” falling by as much as 34%. 

CEO’s who followed @michael_saylor‘s asinine advice to plug their balance sheets into #Bitcoin to hedge against an expected annual #inflation rate of 2% are now down as much as 34% on their “hedge” in one month. That’s 17 years of expected inflation losses. Time to pull the plug!

— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) May 17, 2021

Bitcoin was the last trading of about $45,000 on Tuesday, and it has gained % this year. It dropped nearly 13% after billionaire Elon Musk surprised the crypto industry by suspending bitcoin payments for Tesla, citing concerns about its mining process’s energy consumption.

Saylor responded to Schiff with a screenshot of gold’s investment gains relative to bitcoin, demonstrating that the precious metal would have provided returns 77% lower than Bitcoin over the previous year.

Gold, according to Schiff, is a much more stable commodity than cryptocurrencies. He asked Saylor, whose MicroStrategy firm owns billions of dollars in bitcoin, why they don’t want to discuss the issue instead of passing up opportunities to do so.

Saylor Argues That Discussing Schiff Is Pointless

“It’s unclear what we’d debate,” Saylor wrote on Twitter. “Your stance tends to be ‘Buy any gold, silver, or gold stocks, or government bonds, or corporate bonds, or dividend stocks, or value stocks, or emerging market stocks, or small business stocks, or something really – but not too much.”

It’s not clear what we would debate. Your position appears to be “Buy some gold, or silver, or gold stocks, or government bonds, or corporate bonds, or dividend stocks, or value stocks, or emerging market stocks, or small company stocks, or anything really – just not too much.”

— Michael Saylor (@michael_saylor) May 17, 2021

Saylor retorted that it was pointless to debate someone who “offers nothing but terror, confusion, doubt, and vitriol. The world needs strong capital, and since you admit you have no confidence in #gold, equity, bonds, or fiat, #Bitcoin wins by default,” he continued.

There is no point debating a cynic that stands for nothing, believes in nothing, and offers nothing but fear, uncertainty, doubt, & vitriol. The world needs strong money, and since by your own admission you have no faith in #gold, equity, bonds, & fiat, #Bitcoin wins by default.

— Michael Saylor (@michael_saylor) May 18, 2021

MicroStrategy Inc has announced the acquisition of 229 bitcoins for $10.9 million at an average price of $43,663 per bitcoin, including fees. The company currently has over 92,000 bitcoins in its possession, having invested $2.25 billion on the entire stash at an average selling price of $24,450 per bitcoin.