As the Bitcoin (BTC) community gathered for the Bitcoin 2026 Conference in Las Vegas, Peter Schiff, the chief economist and global strategist at Europac, cautioned enthusiasts about the dangers of digital credit.
Schiff, a popular Bitcoin skeptic, stated that digital credit – the practice of borrowing against Bitcoin holdings rather than liquidating them – could blow up in 2026. Drawing a parallel, he likened this year’s hype around digital credit to the 2025 frenzy among treasury companies, which has since faded.
“Watching the Bitcoin conference from home this year. When I spoke last year, advising attendees to sell, Bitcoin was near 110,000. Today it’s 76,000, a 30% decline. Last year, the hype was about Bitcoin treasury companies near the peak. This year, it’s digital credit, which will soon blow up,” Schiff noted.
Schiff added that the Bitcoin price continued to fall in the past twelve months, even as Strategy Inc. (NASDAQ: MSTR) added to its BTC holdings by leveraging digital credit. Notably, Strategy increased its BTC holdings from 2.76% of Bitcoin’s total supply as of last year’s conference to about 818,334 coins, representing 3.9% at press time.
As such, Schiff argued that even if Strategy further leverages digital credit to increase its BTC holdings to 5%, there is no guarantee of more market sell-off.
“A 40% increase in market share didn’t stop Bitcoin from falling by 30%. If MSTR gets to 5% of supply by next year’s conference, why should Bitcoin stop falling?” He added.
Michael Saylor defends the importance of digital credit to Bitcoin
During his speech at the Bitcoin 2026 Conference on Tuesday, Michael Saylor, the founder and chairman of Strategy, defended the importance of digital credit to the flagship coin. Saylor said that digital credit could drive BTC’s size exponentially in the coming years.
Precisely, Saylor thinks that digital credit could push BTC’s price to $10 million per coin, thereby propelling its valuation above $200 trillion. Furthermore, Saylor stated that the endgame of digital credit and BTC is to create and offer high-yield digital savings accounts that pay 8-10% per year to 1 billion ordinary people worldwide.
Meanwhile, Strategy’s CEO Phong Le argued that if the company takes 1% of the $300 trillion credit market, Btc price could triple to $230,000.
Featured image via Peter Schiff YouTube.
