Tech billionaire Tim Draper, an avowed cryptocurrency bull, has set a $250,000 bitcoin price target for 2022.
Draper made the bold prediction April 12 at the 2018 Block (Chain) Party at his self-named Draper University in San Mateo, California.
“I’m thinking $250,000 a bitcoin by 2022,” Draper said (via Reddit). “Believe it. They’re going to think you’re crazy, but believe it. It’s happening and it’s going to be awesome!”
Draper has a fairly good track record for predicting bitcoin price movements, so market observers aren’t taking his bullish forecast lightly. In 2015, the venture capitalist accurately predicted that bitcoin would top $10,000 by the end of 2017. BTC prices soared above $13,000 on December 31, 2017.
‘Blockchain Is Transformational’
Draper also predicts that blockchain will disrupt and transform finance, healthcare, and many other industries. “It’s honest, it’s straightforward, it’s incorruptible, and it’s fair,” he said.
Shortly before the Block (Chain) Party, Draper signaled his unwavering confidence in blockchain, the technology undergirding cryptocurrencies.
“The blockchain is one of the most transformational technologies that has happened in the history of the world,” he told the San Mateo Daily Journal. “And it is totally worth celebrating.”
Draper isn’t the only billionaire who’s betting big on blockchain. The Rockefeller family (estimated net worth: $1 trillion) has partnered with the cryptocurrency investor group CoinFund to help entrepreneurs launch blockchain-based businesses.
David Pakman, a partner in Venrock — the venture-capital arm of the Rockefeller family — said his VC firm is not interested in turning short-term profits, but in making a long-term investment in blockchain.
“There are a lot of crypto traders in the market,” Pakman said. “There are a lot of cryptocurrency hedge funds. This is different. To us, it looks a little bit more like venture capital.”
Purchased 30,000 Bitcoins For $600 Apiece
Tim Draper has an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard. He comes from a long family line of venture capitalists.
In 2014, Draper made headlines after buying 30,000 bitcoins for $600 apiece (total price paid: $18.5 million) at an auction by the U.S. Marshals Service, a law-enforcement arm of the Department of Justice. The Justice Department frequently auctions off property seized during criminal raids.
At today’s bitcoin price of roughly $8,000 a token, Draper’s stake is now worth about $240 million. That’s not a bad return for a four-year investment.
The entry of Old Money like the Rockefellers and Silicon Valley’s stamp of approval is another signal that cryptocurrencies and blockchain — the technology behind bitcoin — is here to stay, despite the daily protestations from skeptics that “bitcoin is dead.”
To illustrate the point, many of the top business schools in the world — including Draper’s alma mater Stanford — have expanded their MBA course offerings to include classes on bitcoin, crypto, and blockchain.
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