If you are reading this you probably have heard of Balaji Srinivasan and his bet with James Medlock that the price of bitcoin will reach 1M by June 15 because of a rapid devaluation of the U.S. dollar.
Srinivasan’s view is that the global economy is on the precipice of change and this will lead to what is known as “ hyperbitcoinization “.
Balaji has quite an impressive resume and in addition to being the former Chief Technical Officer at Coinbase, was also a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Balaji has also authored a book titled The Network State: How To Start a New Country .
He has also co-founded a number of start ups and was named on the “ Innovators Under 35 “ list by MIT Technology Review and is a graduate of Stanford University.
Obviously Balaji is a very bright, educated individual so why would he make such a wild bet that would make most bitcoin maxi’s cringe as for this to happen would mean a total collapse of the economy and the total devaluation of the dollar.
A 3600% increase to 1M per bitcoin would place the market cap of Bitcoin at close to a staggering $ 20 trillion , more than all the morgtage debt in the US. Mind boggling numbers for sure.
Bitcoin going to 1M in 90 days may be crazy but Balaji is not crazy.
Some have speculated that Srinavasan has his own agenda here and Bitcoin is a market that individuals can manipulate the price through social media hype. Insinuating that Balaji holds enough Bitcoin that if his bet causes a mild run-up in prices, his gains will cover whatever he loses on the bet.
Balaji noted that he only accepted this bet on Twitter. He will never sell Bitcoin for US dollars and is going to hold the first cryptocurrency until USD loses it status of the global reserve currency.
At a time of distress in the traditional financial system, Srinivasan’s bet draws the attention of the public that he is offering a lifeline to them and to change their perceptions of which monetary systems are “safe and reliable” and which are “dangerously unstable.”
That’s the only reason I’m doing this : to alert innocent Americans and dollar holders in the style of Paul Revere that the printing is coming.
The Fed has chosen to monetize the debt in the messiest way possible : an orgy of money printing and bank runs. $150B has already hit the banks and more is on the way. My bet is a way to ring the fire alarm and help you get to the exit in time : Bitcoin. The only global safe haven.
Srinivasan cited several recent tweets in which he pushes back on such critiques and describes his motivation as “getting innocents to Bitcoin lifeboats.”
In a year where the news is dominated by the reckless manner in which exchange and DeFi CEO’s have used our crypto could it be that one man is being reckless with his own crypto to bring awareness and adoption to bitcoin knowing full well that it will be at his own expense ?
Whether Balaji wins or loses this bet is irrelevant if the underlying motive is increased bitcoin adoption as long as that is achieved in the process. If this is the motive then kudo’s to Balaji. Well played !
