Gold

Elon Musk

Real estate investor Grant Cardone has said that his firm is now buying Bitcoin aggressively, pairing it with income-producing properties in a structure he believes solves a problem REITs have never been able to fix.&nbsp;
EuroPac.com Chief Economist and Global Strategist <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/markets/economist-predicted-2008-crash-warns-bitcoin-zero" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Peter Schiff</a> disagreed entirely, calling the approach unnecessary, and has now challenged Cardone to defend it in public.
<a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/markets/elon-musk-has-blunt-proposal-for-u-s-treasury" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Related: Elon Musk has blunt proposal for U.S. Treasury</a>
<h2 id="cardone-s-pitch-bitcoin-fixes-what-reits-can-t">Cardone's pitch: Bitcoin fixes what REITs can't</h2>
Earlier in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2vxPhywUsw" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">an interview</a> on Sunday, Cardone laid out his thesis for why traditional real estate investment trusts are structurally broken. The REIT model, created in 1965, requires firms to distribute most of their income, leaving them with no reserves for capital expenditures.
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 "It's a broken model. They can't keep currency on their balance sheet. They have no money for capex," Cardone said.
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His solution pairs income-producing real estate with Bitcoin held on the same balance sheet. Cardone said his firm has completed six hybrid deals totaling more than $1 billion, including roughly $200 million in unleveraged <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/bitcoin" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Bitcoin </a>purchases.
One deal involving 366 apartment units effectively gave each unit exposure to three Bitcoin alongside its rental income.
<blockquote>
 "I get the upside of the Bitcoin and the positive cash flow," Cardone said, adding that 80 percent of his investors previously owned no Bitcoin at all. He believes Bitcoin remains undervalued, estimating fair value between $150,000 and $190,000. "I'm buying like crazy," he said.
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<a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/investing/worlds-largest-bitcoin-holder-has-never-sold-a-single-coin" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Related: World's largest Bitcoin holder has never sold a single coin</a>
<h2 id="schiff-s-response-it-solves-nothing">Schiff's response: "It solves nothing"</h2>
Peter Schiff pushed Cardone back and in a <a href="https://x.com/PeterSchiff/status/2068786193399943488" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">post on X</a>.&nbsp;
The economist, who founded Euro Pacific Capital in 1996 and has spent decades advocating gold as a superior store of value, has consistently argued that hard assets backed by physical properties outperform speculative ones, and Cardone's model, in his view, is no exception.
The longtime Bitcoin critic argued that rental income alone is sufficient to cover a property's maintenance and repair costs, making the addition of Bitcoin unnecessary.&nbsp;
He has now challenged Cardone to a public debate <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/markets/anthony-scaramucci-attacks-trump-over-power-money-and-crypto-ties" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">over the model</a>, framing it as a strategy built on exposure rather than substance.
<blockquote>
 “Combining real estate with Bitcoin solves nothing. Cardone claims REITs need Bitcoin on their balance sheets to sell so they can pay for repairs and maintenance. But real estate throws off rental income, which can be used to cover those ongoing costs. Happy to debate this,” he said in the post.
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Schiff went further, saying he wouldn't even endorse holding gold inside real estate funds, let alone Bitcoin, which he maintains lacks any underlying utility compared to an asset that can be occupied or rented out.
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<blockquote>
 He reinforced that point <a href="https://x.com/PeterSchiff/status/2068888966527340591" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">directly on X</a> the following morning. "There is no reason to buy gold in a real estate fund either, but it's better than buying Bitcoin," Schiff wrote, drawing a clear line between his skepticism toward gold-in-real-estate strategies and his far harsher view of Bitcoin's place in the same structure.
</blockquote>
<h2 id="a-familiar-standoff-with-one-notable-shift">A familiar standoff, with one notable shift</h2>
This isn't new territory for Schiff, who has spent years arguing Bitcoin holds no inherent value. But his position has shown a slight crack recently.
Last week in a separate <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/markets/economist-predicted-2008-crash-warns-bitcoin-zero" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">exchange with Anthony Pompliano</a>, Schiff conceded that a collapse to zero is now highly unlikely, given how widely the asset is held and traded, even as he maintains that for many investors, Bitcoin's performance might effectively feel like zero.
<a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/markets/early-bitcoiner-makes-bold-call-on-bitcoin-price" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Related: Early Bitcoiner makes a bold prediction</a>

Economist behind 2008 crash prediction warns real estate investors

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