Author: FFP Ai Bot

Bitcoin has survived more than a decade of obituaries, but some of the most famous names in finance still say it is worth little or nothing, and some predict it will eventually go to zero. Meanwhile, a vocal group of crypto investors argues that the privacy coin Zcash could outperform bitcoin or serve as a hedge against it.

Where prices stand

Bitcoin was trading near $81,000 Friday afternoon, Oct. 16, down about 2% over 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap, giving it a total market value of roughly $1.6 trillion. That is well below its record above $126,000 on Oct. 6, 2025. CoinDesk reported that bitcoin bottomed just below $59,000 on June 30, a drop of more than 53%.

Zcash (ZEC) was trading around $1,140 Friday, down about 7% on the day, with a market value of about $19.4 billion, according to CoinGecko. That makes it the 10th-largest cryptocurrency, but still only a little over 1% of bitcoin’s size.

The skeptics

Warren Buffett, the Berkshire Hathaway chairman, called bitcoin “probably rat poison squared” at Berkshire’s annual meeting on May 5, 2018, CNBC reported. At the April 30, 2022, meeting he went further: “If you told me you own all of the bitcoin in the world and you offered it to me for $25, I wouldn’t take it because what would I do with it? I’d have to sell it back to you one way or another. It isn’t going to do anything.” He did not predict a price; his point was that bitcoin produces nothing, unlike farmland or apartments.

Charlie Munger, Buffett’s longtime partner, said at that same 2022 meeting that bitcoin was “stupid and evil,” adding, “In the first place, it’s stupid because it’s still likely to go to zero.” Munger died in November 2023 at age 99.

Eugene Fama, the Nobel Prize-winning University of Chicago economist often called the father of modern finance, was asked on the Chicago Booth podcast Capitalisn’t, in an episode released in early 2025, what probability he would put on bitcoin’s value going to zero within 10 years. “I would say it’s close to one,” he answered. “I still believe in monetary theory, though. I may be wrong.”

Jamie Dimon, the JPMorgan Chase CEO, said in September 2017 that bitcoin “is a fraud” and would blow up, Reuters reported. But Dimon has softened in practice. At JPMorgan’s investor day on May 19, 2025, he said the bank would let clients buy bitcoin, while making clear he is still not a fan: “I don’t think you should smoke, but I defend your right to smoke. I defend your right to buy bitcoin.”

Peter Schiff, the gold advocate and economist, has predicted bitcoin’s collapse for years, posting on X on Nov. 16, 2025, that bitcoin “fails at both use cases” of payments and saving. But he has softened his wording too. During a Fox Business debate with bitcoin bull Anthony Pompliano in June, Schiff said, “It’s not going to go to zero. Maybe.” He later told Benzinga that a literal zero is “highly unlikely,” but “for all practical purposes, for most investors, it will feel like zero,” predicting bitcoin “will lose over 99% of its market value.”

Others on record: Economist Nouriel Roubini told the U.S. Senate Banking Committee in October 2018 that “crypto is the mother or father of all scams and bubbles,” CNBC reported. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said in June 2022 that crypto and NFTs are “100% based on greater fool theory.” And two European Central Bank officials, Ulrich Bindseil and Jürgen Schaaf, wrote on the ECB’s official blog in November 2022 that bitcoin’s price was likely “an artificially induced last gasp before the road to irrelevance.”

The Zcash case

Zcash launched in 2016 as a kind of private version of bitcoin. Like bitcoin, it has a fixed maximum supply of 21 million coins, with new issuance cut in periodic halvings. The difference is privacy: Zcash users can send “shielded” transactions that use zero-knowledge proofs, or zk-SNARKs, to hide the sender, receiver and amount while still proving the transaction is valid. Bitcoin’s ledger is fully public.

Zcash was largely an afterthought until a huge run in late 2025. CoinDesk reported on Nov. 7, 2025, that ZEC had topped $600 for the first time in nearly seven years and was up more than 1,270% over the previous year. It has since climbed to more than $1,100.

Naval Ravikant, the AngelList co-founder and tech investor, posted on X on Oct. 1, 2025: “Bitcoin is insurance against fiat. ZCash is insurance against Bitcoin.”

Arthur Hayes, co-founder of the crypto exchange BitMEX, posted “$ZEC to $10k” on Nov. 7, 2025, and said the same day that ZEC had become the second-largest liquid holding of his fund, Maelstrom, behind bitcoin. A week later he posted “ZEC/BTC to 0.2,” a target under which one Zcash would be worth one-fifth of a bitcoin.

Tyler Winklevoss, co-founder of the Gemini exchange, posted on Aug. 18: “Zcash is the most exciting and undiscovered opportunity in crypto. It is encrypted bitcoin.” Winklevoss Capital led a $58.88 million investment in the former Leap Therapeutics, now called Cypherpunk Technologies, which buys and holds Zcash. Blockworks reported that the company held about 326,000 ZEC at the end of September.

Mert Mumtaz, CEO of the blockchain developer Helius Labs, popularized the “encrypted bitcoin” label. “They’re selling encrypted bitcoin at a 203x discount to regular bitcoin and you’re bearish,” he posted on Nov. 11, 2025. He has said publicly that he is directly involved with Zcash.

Wall Street has also opened a door. Grayscale converted its Zcash trust into an exchange-traded fund, ticker ZCSH, which began trading on NYSE Arca on Aug. 25. Its assets neared $1 billion by late September, Blockworks reported.

None of these backers has said bitcoin will go to zero. Most pitch Zcash as a hedge that could outperform it, not a straight replacement, and several have a financial stake in Zcash rising.

The pushback

Bitcoin supporters point to its staying power. U.S. regulators approved spot bitcoin ETFs in January 2024, opening the door to everyday brokerage accounts. CoinDesk credited ETF demand and less borrowed money with making the latest slump far milder than past crashes of 70% to 85%.

Zcash has critics of its own. Most coins still are not private: about 29% of ZEC sat in shielded pools at the end of September, according to Blockworks, which means most of the supply is as visible as bitcoin. In the spring, developers disclosed a flaw in one of Zcash’s shielded pools, called Orchard, that could have allowed counterfeit coins to be created there. Developers found no evidence it was exploited, and a July upgrade replaced the pool, Blockworks reported.

Privacy coins also face regulatory risk. The European Union’s anti-money-laundering regulation, which applies starting July 10, 2027, bars regulated crypto providers from handling assets that anonymize transactions, and some exchanges have already dropped privacy coins.

Bitcoin advocates also reject the comparison. “It’s cool if you want privacy, but don’t conflate privacy with a store of value,” Samson Mow, CEO of bitcoin firm JAN3, posted on Nov. 16, 2025. Bitcoin investor Dan Held posted on Jan. 9: “ZEC is not a ‘Bitcoin backup’ or ‘The next Bitcoin’ or ‘A better Bitcoin.'”

The bottom line

Bitcoin’s critics have predicted its death for more than a decade while it climbed to tens of thousands of dollars, and some, like Dimon and Schiff, have toned down their language. Zcash’s backers called its 2025 surge, but it remains a small, volatile asset that fell about 7% in a single day this week.

Federal regulators urge investors to understand the risks before buying any cryptocurrency. The SEC’s Investor.gov crypto assets page and the CFTC’s guide to the risks of virtual currency explain common scams and why prices can collapse.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. The Fostoria Free Press does not recommend buying or selling any cryptocurrency. Talk to a licensed financial professional before investing.

#Bitcoin #Zcash #Crypto

Sources

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