Venture Capitalist Bets Bitcoin Will Reach $1 Million In 90 Days
“You buy 1 BTC. I send $1M USD.”
That was the effort of venture capitalist Balaji Srinivasan suggested over Twitter to pseudonymous author and self-described “tax enthusiast” James Medlock on the 17th of March. The bet? Within 90 days, one bitcoin will be worth $1 million.
Medlock, who had jokingly tweeted earlier that he would “bet anyone $1 million that the US doesn’t go into hyperinflation,” quickly agreed to the terms. With bitcoin hovering around $26,000, Srinivasan had bet about 38–1 that “hyperbitcoinization” would unfold over the next three months as the Federal Reserve devalued the U.S. dollar to plug the nation’s faltering banks with new infusions of cash.
Critics have said that the effort is a sales promotion ploy to launch a new media brand or to pump the price of bitcoin to increase the value of his holdings. His doubters include George Mason University economist Tyler Cowen, who predicts that “the United States will muddle through its current problems and patch up the present at the expense of the future,” and bitcoin mega-booster Saifedean Ammous, author of The Bitcoin StandardWHO write “I feel dirty and sound bearish on bitcoin, but I don’t think bitcoin will hit $1 million in 90 days, and I don’t think the dollar can possibly hyperinflate this quickly.”
So what does Srinivasan think?
Find out this Thursday at 1pm Eastern when Srinivasan joins Reason‘s Zach Weissmueller and economist Lawrence White, author of Better Money: Gold, Fiat or Bitcoin? to discuss the efforts and their analyzes of the state of the US banking system. Watch and leave questions and comments on the YouTube video above or on Reasonits Facebook page.
Show notes:
Balaji Srinivasan’s bet with James Medlock—
Federal Reserve to provide additional funds to banks, stalled with $25 billion from the Treasury—
Bloomberg: Fed may inject up to $2 trillion—
Study on uninsured bank deposits in 2023—
Bloomberg: Fed discount window loans exceed $164 billion –
St. Louis Fed: Fed’s Balance Sheet Since 2004—
Tyler Cowen: The banking crisis will not destroy the economy—
Ammous Safeidean: A banking crisis is deflationary—
FedNow Service launches in July:
Jerome Powell addresses banking crisis and rate hikes—
Janet Yellen expresses concern about a few banks—
DeSantis announced the Digital Bill of Rights—
