Billionaire venture capitalist Tim Draper was among the earlier investors in Elon Musk's Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) in 2006, long before the EV car manufacturer built a Bitcoin (BTC) treasury. His
Billionaire venture capitalist Tim Draper was among the earlier investors in Elon Musk's Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) in 2006, long before the EV car manufacturer built a Bitcoin (BTC) treasury.
His most prominent investments include Musk's SpaceX (Nasdaq: SPCX) and crypto-focused companies like Coinbase Global (Nasdaq: COIN) and Robinhood Markets (Nasdaq: HOOD).
Founder of Draper Associates, Tim Draper, speaks during the Web Summit Rio 2023 at the RioCentro Expo Center in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on May 3, 2023. Getty Images
While legendary investor Warren Buffettwas criticizing Bitcoin as a "mirage" in 2014, Draper bet against the advice and the same year spent $19 million to buy 30,000 BTC being auctioned by the U.S. Marshals Service. He made the purchase despite the fact that he had previously lost his Bitcoin holdings during the Mt. Gox collapse.
Bitcoin wasn't worth even $1,000 in 2014, but it's trading around $77,500 right now.
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On Sep. 10, Draper wrote a long X post in which he warned that the U.S. dollar will meet the same fate as the Confederate States dollar.
Introduced in 1861, the Confederate States dollar was issued just ahead of the outbreak of the American Civil War by the newly formed Confederacy. The fiat currency was not backed by hard assets but by a promise to pay the bearer after the Confederacy wins the war.
But the Confederacy lost the war in 1865 and the Confederate States dollar's value had collapsed by then.
In his post, Draper dropped a childhood anecdote of his father giving him a million Confederate dollar bill, only to tell the young Tim that he could buy nothing with the valueless currency.
"That's what's coming for the US dollar," the billionaire warned.
Draper used the warning to argue his case for Bitcoin, predicting that retailers will only accept Bitcoin in the future which will make the U.S. dollar worthless.
When that happens, people will rush to the bank to convert their U.S. dollars for Bitcoin and the first ones to do so will benefit from the financial transformation, he predicted.
It's the expectation of a widespread retail adoption of Bitcoin in the future that the billionaire is betting on.
BTC/USD, Source: DecibelDraper has often predicted that Bitcoin's price will eventually hit $250,000. As per Decibel, it was trading at $77,491 at the time of writing.
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