Crypto investor Balaji Srinivasan has lost $1 million in a failed digital currency bet.
Balaji Srinivasan Is Forking Over $1 Million
It was originally decided back in March of this year between Srinivasan and a pseudonymous figure on Twitter named James Medlock that a bitcoin bet was in order. Srinivasan said that with rising hyperinflation in the United States and abroad, bitcoin would become the new gold mine for investors and strike a $1 million price within a 90-day period. Clearly, the world’s number one digital currency by market cap is nowhere near this figure, and now he’s having to pay $1 million to the Medlock character.
Medlock explained in a recent interview:
The joke itself was that, in the event of hyperinflation, the million dollars wouldn’t be worth very much anyways, so it was a no-lose situation, but hyperinflation is extremely rare, usually happening in times of conflict or institutional collapse. With the U.S. dollar being the global reserve currency and our institutions being relatively stable, hyperinflation today would be without precedent. In fact, a banking crisis might end up being deflationary, as the loss of deposits would reduce demand.
To be fair, bitcoin has experienced a certain degree of healing since the bearish trends of 2022 took it to new lows. However, things have not jumped up in such a way that bitcoin is now the king of investment tools. Yes, there are many people who now view it more as a “safe haven” – especially since several banks in both the U.S. and Europe are crashing and burning – but the asset is nowhere near the $1 million point Srinivasan allegedly predicted it would be at.
Sadly, bitcoin is not even at the halfway mark of the $68,000 all-time high figure it achieved in November of 2021. Describing what he’d do with the money, Medlock explained:
I’ll pay off some debt, build a nice cat house for my neighborhood feral, and invest in a much better investment than BTC, namely low-fee index funds.
Many Have Predicted $1 Million for BTC
There have been many figures over the past few years that have claimed bitcoin would hit $1 million or cross into seven-figure territory. One of the main ones was John McAfee, who notoriously stated that he would “eat his own d*ck” if bitcoin failed to reach $1 million by the year 2020. Obviously, this didn’t happen, and McAfee later claimed that his statements had all been a joke (clearly a last-ditch attempt to retain his manhood).
However, several years later, Cathie Wood of Ark Invest fame was quick to mention that bitcoin would undoubtedly strike either $1 million or $1.5 million within a ten-year timeframe, and in all fairness, while $1 million is still a large number, ten years seems much more doable in the long run.