Peter Schiff has built a career on Deriding Bitcoin. The free -speaking gold evangelist and fund manager famously spotted in 2019, “Keep dreaming. Bitcoin will never hit $ 100,000!”1. To Schiff, the world’s largest cryptocurrency has long been nothing but “Digital Fool’s Gold” – a speculative bubble intended to pop, or as he put it in 2023, “Still going to zero… just traveling a long way”2. Nevertheless, the recent revelations in a twist with irony reveal that Schiff’s own asset management arm quietly received exposure to a bitcoin-backed bond late last year. In other words, the man who equates Bitcoin with Tulip Mania now finds his company inadvertently invested in a bond driven by the very active he loves to hate.
Bitcoin -bonding someone expected
The instrument in question is a Bitcoin Treasury bond issued by Samara Asset Group PLC, a listed European active manager (formerly known as Cryptology Asset Group). In November 2024, Samara successfully issued what it calls “Europe’s first ever Bitcoin bond,” and raised 20 million euros to expand its portfolio and increase its Bitcoin Treasury stocks significantly.3 The bond (ISIN: NO0013364398) is structured as a 5-year senior-proof note maturing in 2029, which offers a significant 10.062% annual coupon.4 In addition, the bond includes an innovative incentive: Bond owners receive an extra 0.25% premium on the principal for every € 0.25 increase in Samara’s net worth (NAV) per year. Share, which carefully adapts bondholder interests with shareholders.
Samara’s CEO Patrick Lowry described the issue enthusiastically and noted that it was “the very first time in history that a European company has taken a page out of ‘Michael Saylor Playbook’, which issued a bond explicitly for the purpose of acquiring Bitcoin.”5 During weeks after the issue of the bond, Samara actually used the proceeds to buy approx. 76 BTC to his treasury and invested in several cryptophocused venture funds.6
The farmer’s back story reads as a pure rocket fuel to institutional Bitcoin enthusiasts. The Samara Bitcoin bond was announced in October 2024 in the middle of rising BTC prices and was designed to utilize Bitcoin as a strategic government reserve asset. Samara placed it as a win-win suggestion: Investors would enjoy a high yield combined with additional NAV-based upside, while Samara could award capital to Bitcoin and groundbreaking tech investments.7 In early November, the bond had successfully closed its private location to € 20 million. (Minimum investment ticket: € 100K) and is expected to be built publicly for trading on the Oslo and Frankfurt exchange within one to two weeks.8 In particular, this bond is secured with an over -collateralized portfolio that includes a basket with Samara’s venture investments of 150 million e9
A little suspected anyone that among these bond owners would be Peter Schiff’s Euro Pacific.
Euro pacifics hidden Bitcoin -efforts
Go into the Europac International Bond Fund, a global bond Mutual fund administered by Euro Pacific Asset Management – The company founded and helped by Peter Schiff10. Schiff, as a owner of the counselor, has long shaped Euro Pacific’s strategy around his macro -virtue (hard money, skepticism towards the US dollar, affinity for gold and foreign bonds)11. The Europac International Bond Fund typically has a mix of sovereign and company debt from around the world, in line with Schiff’s dissertation that non-American assets can protect against dollar base12. It’s the last place one could expect to find something Related to Bitcoin. But that is exactly what emerged when the fund’s SEC archiving was published this year.
In the Fund’s Form N-Port P-Deviling (a mandatory SEC archiving of portfolio holdings), which covers the end of 2024, a curious line post appears: “Samara Asset Group PLC” Identified by the same ISIN (No0013364398) of Samara’s Bitcoin bond13. The filing shows the europacic bond fund,14. This position represented approx. 1.58% of the fund’s net assets15. In ordinary terms, Peter Schiff’s Flag Ship Foundation became a financier of a Bitcoin-supported company, even when Schiff himself spent 2024 high bashing Bitcoin’s rally.
To be clear, this inventory was probably a small, dividend award made by the fund’s leaders (Schiff’s team includes co-leaders Jim Nelson, CFA and Steve Kleckner, CAIA16). From a bond investor’s perspective, Samara’s 10%+ coupon to a 5-year-old note-driven by a trove of tech investments and Bitcoin-Reserver-Simpthe can looked like an attractive opportunity for high yield. In fact, Europac’s International Bond Fund had a mandate to seek income in international markets, and 2024’s rising interest rates made double -digit coupons enticing. In all likelihood, this was a strategic effort on a strong benefit, not an ideological face. But intentional or not, the irony is exquisite: Schiff’s Foundation Hitched Indirectly for Bitcoin’s success. If Bitcoin thrives and strengthens Samara’s economy, Europac’s bond will be safer and its interest payments safer. Conversely, a Bitcoin crash would imperile the much issuer to which Europac lent money.
Irony, hypocrisy or just business?
This Revelation-to Peter Schiff, Bitcoin’s Arch-Nemesis, has indirect exposure to Bitcoin through his company’s investment-will probably trigger both entertainment and lively discussion in Bitcoin and Crypto Community. Given Schiff’s well -known attitude, it is easy to predict the inevitable jokes: could Schiff a secret “stable rate”? Will Bitcoin and Crypto Twitter soon have a field day pointing out the irony of Schiff’s accidental backing Bitcoin?
For years, Schiff has lambasted Bitcoin as having “no inherent value” and repeatedly predicted its inevitable collapse. Even when Bitcoin crossed $ 100,000 in December, Schiff rejected the milestone, twited that it happened only because of “buying politicians and getting in bed with government” and insisting that the rally would end17.
While Schiff himself may not have been directly involved in the decision to buy Samara Bitcoin bond – so assignments often reflect pragmatic yield strategies from fund managers rather than ideological shifts – the symbolic impact remains significant. Bitcoin, the decentralized asset Schiff, never promised to own, now quietly constitutes part of his company’s portfolio, which emphasizes how market incentives can override even deeply held beliefs.
Ultimately, this exclusive discovery highlights a broader narrative: Bitcoin’s gravity draw in traditional funding has become so strong that even its most obvious critics can find themselves indirectly in line with its success.
When ideology meets reality
This highlights a wider truth in today’s markets. When Bitcoin matures and integrates into global funding, it is blurred lines and forces strange bedsfellows. We have seen large banks that once avoided crypto that begins to offer Bitcoin parent authority, and Hedgefondtitans, who called Bitcoin A -Fidus, who later awarded it. But Peter Schiff’s case is perhaps the most ironic to date – the Gold Bug, which inadvertently backs a Bitcoin bond, is one for the history books. It shows that pragmatism often wins: If a Bitcoin-related instrument can deliver returns, even a fund led by Bitcoin’s biggest Naysayer will buy.
For the Bitcoin-savvy audience, there is a sweet satisfaction in watching Schiff’s anti-BTC purism line up. It reinforces the meme that “Bitcoin doesn’t care” – it will convert someone in the end, willingly or otherwise.
To be righteous, Schiff remains so anti-bitcoin as always in his public comment. But facts speak for themselves: Thanks to the Europac International Bond Fund’s holdings, Peter Schiff has now exposure to Bitcoin’s Outside (and Disadvantages) through Samara’s bond18. Next time he tweets that Bitcoin is worthless, Hodler’s smile can know by knowing that even Schiff’s own products on a roundabout are tied to the fate of digital gold.
Endnotes:
- Peter Schiff quoted in Cryptopotato: “Keep dreaming. Bitcoin will never hit $ 100,000!” September 30, 2019, Cryptopotato.
- Peter Schiff quoted in Crypto News: Bitcoin described as “Digital Fool’s Gold” and “Still to zero … just traveling a long road,” March 26, 2023, Crypto News.
- Samara Asset Group press release: “Europe’s first ever Bitcoin bond,” December 6, 2024, Samara Asset Group.
- Samara Bitcoin bond details: 5-year senior-proof note, 10.062% annual coupon, ISIN NO0013364398, Business Insider Markets.
- Patrick Lowry (CEO, Samara): First European company using “Michael Saylor Playbook”, December 6, 2024, Samara Asset Group.
- Samara Asset Group invested the bond proceeds in 76 BTC and venture funds, December 2024, Samara Asset Group.
- Samara Bitcoin Bond designed to utilize Bitcoin as a Treasury’s reserve asset, October 2024, Samara Asset Group.
- Samara Bond Private location closed (EUR 20 million), built Oslo and Frankfurt, November 2024, Samara Asset Group; Business Insider Markets.
- Samara Bond Security Information: Overcollateralized € 150 million portfolio, 13.3% LTV, November 2024, Samara Asset Group.
- Euro Pacific Asset Management, managed by Peter Schiff, Fund Fact Sheet, 30 September 2024, EPC Advisors Group.
- Peter Schiff’s Macroeconomic Strategy for Euro Pacific Asset Management, September 2024, EPC Advisors Group.
- Europac International Bond Fund Investment Thesis, September 30, 2024, EPC Advisors Group.
- SEC archiving (Form N-Port P), Europac Fund that holds Samara Bitcoin Bond, December 2024, Publicnow.
- Europac Fund owns € 800,000 Rector of Samara Bitcoin bond, appreciated ~ $ 870,000 USD, December 2024, Publicnow.
- Europac Holding in the Samara bond represented 1.58% of net assets, December 2024, Publicnow.
- Europac Fund Co leaders: Jim Nelson (CFA), Steve Kleckner (CAIA), September 2024, EPC Advisors Group.
- Schiff Reaction Tweet to Bitcoin hitting $ 100,000, December 2024, Benzinga.
Europac Fund Indirect Bitcoin exposure confirmed via Samara Bond Holding, December 2024, Publicnow.