Bitcoin villain Peter Schiff: Trump’s opening of 401 investment in BTC will only exacerbate the “retirement crisis” in the United States
Peter Schiff, the Bitcoin villain and founder of precious metals trader SchiffGold, criticized Trump’s move to allow Americans’ 401(k) retirement accounts to invest in Bitcoin, which may make Americans’ retirement crisis worse.
(Preliminary news: Trump is rumored to open up $9 trillion of 401(k) retirement funds to invest in cryptocurrency. Is Bitcoin going to take off?)
(Background supplement: Trump will allow 401(k) retirement funds to invest in Bitcoin! Vice President Vance: 100 million people in the United States will own BTC soon)
Contents of this article
US President Trump officially signed an executive order yesterday (7th) to allow Americans’ 401(k) retirement accounts to invest in alternative assets, including private equity, real estate and digital assets, including Bitcoin. After the news was released, the cryptocurrency community immediately became excited: on the one hand, this means that Bitcoin is once again moving towards the mainstream economy in the United States; on the other hand, it also means that the huge fund pool of the 401(k) plan may inject huge buying into the Bitcoin market, driving up the price.
Peter Schiff: Trump will exacerbate Americans’ retirement crisis
However, Peter Schiff, the villain of Bitcoin and founder of precious metals trader SchiffGold, publicly criticized Trump through the X platform, warning that Trump’s move may worsen Americans’ retirement crisis. Peter Schiff said bluntly:
"The savings of most Americans are far from enough to meet their retirement needs. Trump now actually allows them to use the only retirement savings in their 401(k) to gamble on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. This is simply adding insult to injury!"
Previously, when Trump announced the establishment of the US Bitcoin Strategic Reserve and Digital Asset Reserve this year, Schiff They call Bitcoin a "pyramid scheme" and believe that its high volatility and speculative nature will amplify the country's financial risks. Once the price of Bitcoin falls into a depression, the resulting crisis will be even more serious than the consequences of the 2008 financial crisis.
Most Americans have saved far less than needed to have any hope of retirement. By allowing Americans to gamble what little retirement savings they have in their 401(k)s on Bitcoin and other cryptos, Trump just made this problem much worse!
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) August 7, 2025
What is 401(k)? How big is the fund size?
401(k) is a common retirement savings plan in the United States. It is provided by employers and allows employees to deposit part of their salary (usually pre-tax income) into a personal account and invest it in assets such as stocks, bonds or funds to accumulate retirement funds. Many employers offer "matching contributions" to increase employee savings. This type of plan has tax benefits, but withdrawals usually have to wait until age 59 1/2 or face penalties.
In 2021, total assets in 401(k) plans were approximately $7.26 trillion. However, according to the latest estimates, the total assets of U.S. 401(k) plans have grown to more than $8.5 trillion.
Who is Peter Schiff?
Peter Schiff is a well-known American economist, stockbroker and financial commentator. He became famous for accurately predicting the 2008 financial crisis and was known as "Dr. Doom". He founded Euro Pacific Capital and Schiff Gold, which focused on foreign securities and precious metals investments.
Schiff is a supporter of the free-market Austrian school of economics, advocating minimal government intervention and sound monetary policy. He opposes the U.S. monetary easing policy, believing that it will lead to dollar depreciation and inflation, but he is optimistic about real assets such as gold and silver as well as emerging market stocks in the long term. He is strongly skeptical of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, believing that they lack intrinsic value and are purely speculative bubbles.
