If there's anyone who can spot the future trends in the world of technology, it's venture capitalist Tim Draper. Draper is a co-founder of the VC firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson and has made hundreds of early investments in cutting-edge companies like Tesla.
Now, the 65-year-old VC legend is making another big call on the world's largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC 1.42%) -- namely that it's about to take off. Here's how high Draper thinks the price can go.
Image source: Getty Images.
Delayed, but a big pop is coming
Draper is not just a billionaire investor -- he's also been a Bitcoin enthusiast from the early years, when the token was still gaining traction. In 2014, Draper purchased 29,656 Bitcoin tokens that had been seized from the Silk Road online marketplace by U.S. Marshals. At the time, the price of Bitcoin was only $632, so Draper has already made an absolute killing.
But Draper thinks Bitcoin is just getting started. When it traded at around $4,000, Draper predicted that Bitcoin would be at $250,000 by now. While the price of Bitcoin currently hovers around $31,200, Draper is sticking to his prediction. "I guess we have to wait a little longer (maybe two years), but engineers are hard at work," he tweeted not long ago.
So what's the holdup? Well, in a recent interview with Bloomberg, Draper said he is surprised by how opposed agencies of the U.S. government such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have been toward the crypto industry.
Earlier this year, the SEC sued Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, and then Coinbase, the large crypto exchange in the U.S. The SEC is adamant that many cryptocurrencies should be treated as securities and therefore regulated under the purview of the SEC although SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has acknowledged previously that Bitcoin is not a security.
"I thought that maybe they would be recognizing that they've gotta compete with the rest of the world," Draper told Bloomberg, adding that regulators are "driving all the great entrepreneurs out."
But Draper believes that Bitcoin is here to stay for the long haul and that one day it will eventually become an everyday currency that will soon be more broadly accepted by retailers, which he thinks can reap many benefits from using the payments technology.
"I can't wait until I can raise a fund all in Bitcoin, invest it all in Bitcoin, have my portfolio companies paid in Bitcoin, and have taxes all paid in Bitcoin, and have the waterfall all fall into people's Bitcoin wallets," Draper said.
Will Draper's prediction come true?
Obviously, Draper is not the first notable investor to predict that Bitcoin will rise significantly, but he certainly does have a tremendous track record of anticipating future trends. He's also clearly got skin in the game.
I would agree with Draper that Bitcoin is here to stay, and I've said previously that it merits some exposure in one's portfolio, given that it does have a history of rising when the dollar drops and during difficult periods for the banking sector.
However, I have no price prediction for the digital asset and am still unclear if everyone will be using it as a currency one day. Cryptocurrencies are hard to value as an asset, but given the continued adoption of Bitcoin in the mainstream financial system, I do envision a future with Bitcoin.
