• Famed Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff says investor confidence in Bitcoin could be declining as GBTC trades at a record discount. 
  • Market data indicates that the BTC market still has pointers of strong investor confidence. 

Economist Peter Schiff, the founder and chief market strategist of Euro Pacific Asset Management, has continued his anti-Bitcoin campaign with a warning that investor confidence in the Bitcoin (BTC) could be reducing.

In a tweet, Schiff pointed out that Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC)—the world’s largest Bitcoin fund— hit a 43 percent discount to its net asset value (NAV). At this discount level and a Bitcoin price of around $16,700 on the day, shareholders of the fund were willing to sell their Bitcoin for the equivalent of $9,500.

His latest comment is coming after he previously stated that BTC will never hit its all-time high price of $69,000 again in its history. The popular broker and gold proponent held that BTC’s rise to the ATH price is a fluke that was fueled by speculative buying and unprecedented crypto advertising.

Has investor confidence in BTC hit the rocks?

Schiff’s bearish stance on Bitcoin is shared to some extent by even crypto market participants. According to an analysis by a CryptoQuant commentator, the current position of the Bitcoin “supply in profit” on-chain metric could indicate that the bear market has not yet formed a cyclical bottom.

Per the analysis, cyclical bottoms have usually formed when the supply in profit metric falls below 40 percent — indicating that only 40 percent of BTC investors are still in profit. At present, the metric is trending at a value of 45 percent, leaving room for a further decline in price before a turnaround is expected.

Related: Peter Schiff: Sell your Bitcoin now – Onchain data signals warning for BTC

Regardless, other metrics and market trends also leave analysts confident that Bitcoin and the crypto market will emerge stronger from the FTX collapse-induced price crash. Investors, including Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest, have been buying the dip in GBTC according to a Bloomberg report.

Similarly, market intelligence platform Santiment has noted the likelihood of BTC returning to social prominence even as data from Coinglass points to reducing sell-side pressure as BTC holders have been moving their coins off exchanges. The bullish trends have seen the price of BTC remain stable at around $16,700.