Goldbug Peter Schiff says the U.S. dollar is facing massive deleveraging as metals surge and crypto stalls

Gold’s vertical spike to fresh records is Peter Schiff’s proof that U.S. stocks sit in a “historic bear market” once priced in ounces, not dollars, and that central banks are quietly replacing the greenback with metal.

Gold’s one‑day vertical move has become a brutal referendum on U.S. equities, with economist Peter Schiff arguing that investors are already deep in a “historic bear market” once you strip out inflation and price stocks in ounces rather than in dollars. Spot gold briefly spiked to fresh records near $5,590 before closing at $5,414, up $235 on the session — the biggest single‑day dollar gain in the metal’s history.

On X, Schiff framed the move as a reality check for equity bulls. “The Dow is now worth just 9 ounces of gold, its lowest level since 2013 and nearly 80% below its record high priced in gold in 1999,” he wrote, warning investors: “Don’t be fooled by inflation. This is a historic bear market!” In 1999, the Dow’s 5,117.12 level versus gold at $285.65 implied roughly 17.9 ounces; today, around 49,015.60 on the index against $5,556.12 per ounce drags that ratio down to 8.8. The message is simple and uncomfortable: nominal highs in U.S. stocks conceal a long erosion of real purchasing power when benchmarked against a hard asset.

The macro backdrop justifies the alarm. The Federal Reserve left its policy rate unchanged at 3.50%–3.75% at the January FOMC meeting, pausing after three consecutive cuts even as it concedes inflation remains “somewhat elevated.” At the same time, central banks are stockpiling gold at roughly 60 tons per month, helping bullion overtake the euro as the second‑largest reserve asset behind the dollar amid mounting fiscal, geopolitical and currency‑credibility concerns. That structural bid has turned the metal’s chart into what one strategist called a “parabolic” expression of global anxiety over deficits, de‑dollarization and the long‑term value of paper claims.

Crypto is absorbing the same shock through its plumbing and politics rather than through a parallel melt‑up in prices. In Washington, a broad crypto bill has advanced out of the Senate Agriculture Committee but faces stiff resistance over how to divide oversight between securities and commodities regulators — a fight that will shape everything from exchange supervision to the future of “digital gold” narratives. In London and Brussels, detailed rulebooks for stablecoins and payment tokens are pushing issuers toward bank‑style capital, reserve and governance standards, effectively turning once‑shadowy dollar substitutes into regulated extensions of the traditional system.

Under the surface, prediction markets and DeFi data suggest a market bracing for turbulence rather than euphoria. Research desks flag that crypto‑linked prediction markets currently price months of range‑bound chop instead of an imminent blow‑off top, even as volatility creeps higher and the total digital‑asset market cap stagnates in the mid‑trillion band. Recent sell‑offs have already forced sizable liquidations across major lending and perpetuals platforms as coins briefly sliced through key psychological levels, a reminder that leverage, not conviction, still drives large parts of the ecosystem.

In that context, Schiff’s “historic bear market” language lands in a world where gold is screaming macro stress, equities are celebrating nominal highs, and crypto is quietly being rewired by regulators and market structure. The common thread is a slow, grinding repricing of what constitutes safety: central banks doubling down on metal, lawmakers dragging crypto into the rulebook, and investors discovering that in real terms, the line between bull and bear depends less on index levels than on what your assets can still buy when measured against something that does not print.