Tim Draper Predicts Bitcoin Will Reach $250,000 in 18 Months

Tim Draper, a venture capitalist who lost holdings when the Mt. Gox exchange collapsed in 2014, renewed a long-standing price target for Bitcoin and wrote that he expects the cryptocurrency to reach $250,000 within 18 months and could go higher if the dollar weakens under inflation. At the time of his post, Bitcoin traded near $74,205.

Draper recounted his early experience with Bitcoin, noting he first tried to buy coins when they traded near $4. He arranged for Peter Vessenes to mine using chips from manufacturer Butterfly Labs, but the maker used the chips for its own mining before shipping the equipment. By the time the hardware arrived, Bitcoin had climbed above $30 and the mined coins were held on Mt. Gox. When the exchange collapsed in 2014, Draper lost that position.

After the loss, Draper researched how Bitcoin was being used and identified remittances and payments for unbanked workers as common use cases. That led him to bid at a U.S. Marshals Service auction in July 2014, where he paid $632 per coin and won all nine lots, acquiring roughly 29,656 Bitcoins. He later predicted Bitcoin would reach $10,000 within three years; that level was reached in November 2017.

In his recent post Draper wrote, “I have reason to believe that Bitcoin will reach $250k in 18 months and eventually I expect the number to be higher as Bitcoin rises and the dollar falls to inflationary pressures.” He has issued the $250,000 forecast before; Bitcoin has not approached that level in the six years since the earlier prediction.

Other figures in the crypto community have named similar targets. At the time of Draper’s statement, Bitcoin remained well below $250,000.