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US gov’t messed up my $250K Bitcoin price prediction: Tim Draper, Hall of Flame

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Tim Draper is a prominent venture capitalist, the founder of Draper University and the creator of the Meet The Drapers television series. He invested early in Tesla, SpaceX and Coinbase and has 254,000 followers on X.

“Let me get my second prediction to actually happen, and then we’ll move on to other predictions,” Tim Draper tells Hall of Flame, refusing to be drawn on price predictions for XRP and Ethereum.

This makes sense, given it’s been six years since he forecast that Bitcoin would reach $250,000 by 2022.

Spoiler alert: It didn’t.

Which is not to say it won’t happen eventually, as Draper has been pretty far-sighted in the past.

Back in 2014, Draper scooped up around 30,000 Bitcoin for $19 million after the U.S. Marshals took down Silk Road. Fast forward to today, and those Bitcoin have increased 4,165% in value to be worth a whopping $810.5 million.

Around the same time, he made a prediction that Bitcoin would reach $10,000 in three years, and lo and behold, it hit that mark in 2017.

Draper explains that he only dropped the $250,000 prediction because people kept asking after he totally nailed his first Bitcoin price guess.

“The only reason I’ve given the second prediction was that the first one was so good. I had a lot of pressure to put another one out there,” Draper declares.

He has politely requested a deadline extension on Bitcoin reaching a quarter of a million, with a timeline that would give a university lecturer a heart attack.

“Give me until the end of June next year,” he says.

Draper accuses the U.S. government of messing up his price prediction. He had expected the growth of blockchain to be reminiscent of the internet era, similar to when he made his earlier investments in companies like Hotmail and Skype.

He emphasizes the significant benefit that the United States reaped by maintaining a hands-off approach to overregulating the internet.

“I expected a much more light touch, the way Bill Clinton was with the internet; they said, hey, we got the internet! We regulated the internet, and Bill Clinton smartly left it alone, and it was fantastic for the whole world.”

Investing Alpha

Despite the media coverage, Draper doesn’t spend his days making predictions; in fact, his schedule is quite packed.

At 65 years old, he remains highly active, renowned as a serial investor who chucked cash early in companies like Tesla, SpaceX, Coinbase, and, well … Theranos.

He enjoys playing basketball because it energizes him and puts him in an investment mindset.

“When I play basketball, I’m thinking about how I can get the defender to move one way, and then I’ll move another,” he explains.

Draper claims he possesses alpha instincts both on the basketball court and in the investment world.

“I’m very aggressive; if I see something I like, I go right after it,” he says.

“I guess as an investor, I invest like a chess move because I’m always evaluating not just the entrepreneur or the idea. But what happens if it’s successful? how great could it be? What does the world look like then?”

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What led to Twitter Fame?

Draper started with a very modest Twitter following.

“I think I had one Twitter follower, and it was my mother,” he jokes.

While you might assume that one of Draper’s investments or media appearances helped his following to skyrocket, he describes his growth as very natural, attributing it to the content he has been consistently posting over the years, which has kept people coming back for more.

He is proud of how “truly organic” his following is.

“I think I have the most steady increase of Twitter followers of any influencer,” he declares.

What type of content can people expect?

Draper isn’t here to clutter up his followers’ feeds with nonsense.

He’s all about adding a little sprinkle of value to their lives, and he sticks to only posting about three times a week.

“I tend to post where it’s something I feel like people should see or where one of my startups has done something extraordinary, and I want to promote them,” he explains.

What content does Tim Draper like?

Within the 2,400 accounts he follows on Twitter, he relies on a select group of trusted people to keep him informed about the crypto industry.

Among his trusted crew are Gemini founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen and Silicon Valley investors Brad and Bart Stephens.

Tim Draper predictions

Draper is backing his 250,000 Bitcoin prediction so hard that if it doesn’t hit, he’ll bow out of predictions altogether.

“If it’s not $250,000 or higher, then don’t listen to me ever again on that kind of prediction,” he laughs.

When questioned about the chances of a Bitcoin ETF getting approved, he doesn’t sound hopeful.

“It might have to wait for [Republican candidate] Nikki Haley to be president,” he declares.

“Maybe it’s the cushy relationship they have with banks, maybe it’s the fact that they have uncertainty about it. Maybe a lot of our government is pretty old, maybe they’re just out of touch. But they’re missing something very, very important for the good of society, and I’m hoping they all come around.”

Ciaran Lyons

Ciaran Lyons is an Australian crypto journalist. He’s also a standup comedian and has been a radio and TV presenter on Triple J, SBS and The Project.

Cryptocurrency

Saylor’s Strategy Bought Another 4,225 BTC Before Bitcoin’s Price Explosion: Details

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Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin-oriented brainchild has made another massive purchase, accumulating 4,225 BTC for $472.5 million.

Due to the cryptocurrency’s substantial price expansion in the past few years, Strategy now sits at a mindblowing unrealized profit of roughly $30 billion.

This is because the company has spent $42.87 billion to acquire its BTC stash of 601,550 bitcoins bought at an average price of $71,268 per unit. Given BTC’s price as of press time ($121,500), this puts Strategy’s fortune at over $73 billion.

Saylor hinted about this purchase yesterday, indicating that some weeks, “you don’t just HODL.” Recall that the company didn’t announce a new acquisition last week, which was somewhat surprising given its history since the US elections in November last year.

Strategy’s former CEO has also been particularly vocal on X about different BTC purchases from other companies. In the past few days alone, he has reposted the accumulations completed by the likes of Metaplanet, K33, DigitalX Ltd., Sequans, and the Blockchain Group.

The average price of Strategy’s latest purchase means that it was most likely completed in the middle of the previous week when BTC challenged $112,000. The asset has traded well beyond that level ever since Thursday.

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Metaplanet Snaps Up 797 More BTC in Aggressive Bitcoin Gold Rush

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Japanese investment firm Metaplanet has expanded its Bitcoin holdings with the purchase of 797 BTC, after spending approximately 13.8 billion yen, which is worth around $93 million.

The company acquired Bitcoin at an average price of around $117,000 per unit.

Aiming for “Escape Velocity”

Following the latest acquisition, Metaplanet currently holds 16,352 BTC, equivalent to approximately $1.64 billion. It maintains its position as the world’s fifth-largest publicly traded corporate BTC holder, according to data shared by BitcoinTreasuries. The accumulation now comes just a week after the Tokyo-listed company purchased 2,205 BTC.

The firm, which shifted from hotel operations to Bitcoin treasury management last year, has been accelerating its accumulation strategy amid rising institutional interest in crypto assets. Metaplanet has set an ambitious target to control over 210,000 BTC by 2027, which is around 1% of the total Bitcoin supply.

Metaplanet had previously revealed its plans to leverage its growing Bitcoin reserves to acquire cash-generating businesses, even potentially including a digital bank in Japan.

Last week, Gerovich told the Financial Times that the company is racing to accumulate as much BTC as possible, while describing it as a “Bitcoin gold rush” to reach “escape velocity” and maintain a lead over competitors. The exec also said that he would never sell the crypto asset.

“We think of it as a Bitcoin gold rush. We need to accumulate as much Bitcoin as we can to get to a point where we have reached escape velocity, and it just makes it very difficult for others to catch up.”

Metaplanet’s Ambitious Bitcoin Plan

In its next phase, Metaplanet aims to use the crypto asset as collateral to access financing, similar to how securities or government bonds are used. The goal will be to deploy these funds to buy profitable businesses aligned with its strategy. While crypto-backed lending remains rare in traditional banking, experiments like Standard Chartered’s pilot with OKX suggest growing institutional interest.

Gerovich ruled out issuing convertible debt to fund growth, preferring options like preferred shares to avoid repayment tied to volatile share prices. The firm said that it envisions digital banking services as a future area of expansion, and aims to deliver superior retail banking options in Japan using its BTC-backed leverage.

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Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin Price Analysis: BTC Nearing Exhaustion or Gearing Up for $130K Next?

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Bitcoin has officially entered price discovery once again, trading just below $122,000 at the time of writing. After months of consolidation and multiple failed breakout attempts, the bulls have finally regained full control.

The breakout above the previous all-time high around $112,000 was followed by explosive momentum, and investors are wondering how much further BTC will run.

By ShayanMarkets

The Daily Chart

The daily chart shows that the asset is still respecting the long-term ascending channel, as it rebounded from its lower boundary and is currently rallying toward the mid-line. The price decisively closed above the $112,000 previous all-time high, a level that acted as a distribution zone for over a month. Following this breakout, BTC printed several bullish continuation candles, pushing all the way up to $122,000.

Yet, a retracement into the $114K–$117K zone is probable to cool the market down. This pullback would not invalidate the bullish structure but instead offer a healthier continuation setup. As long as the price holds above the $114K breakout level, the medium-term structure remains strongly bullish.

The 4-Hour Chart

The 4H chart shows a clean breakout from the recent range and a near-vertical price expansion, confirming the daily momentum. After breaking above the descending channel, Bitcoin formed a strong impulsive leg. As a result, the RSI is now extremely elevated at 78+, hinting at potential short-term exhaustion.

The 4H chart also highlights the newly formed Fair Value Gaps stacked below the price, which could get revisited in the coming sessions or days. These FVGs can both attract the price and act as potential support. As long as BTC remains above the 114K block, short dips into this region would be considered bullish retests.

Moreover, if the price begins to range around the 121K–122K area, it would allow RSI to cool off and provide fresh momentum for the next breakout, without experiencing much correction.

Sentiment Analysis

Bitcoin Funding Rates

Funding rates have started to spike again, reflecting the surge in long-side leverage after the breakout. This sharp uptick in funding confirms that traders are aggressively chasing the move. While elevated funding is expected during trend continuations, it also introduces risk: the higher the leverage imbalance, the more vulnerable the market becomes to a flush.

Historically, when funding remains excessively positive while prices stall or consolidate, it often leads to a liquidation-driven pullback. So far, we haven’t seen aggressive spikes like those in Q1 2024, but it’s something to monitor closely.

If the asset fails to push higher while funding stays elevated, a quick shakeout into the 114K zone is possible. Until then, the sentiment remains bullish but slightly overheated, which aligns with current RSI readings and market structure.

 

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Disclaimer: Information found on CryptoPotato is those of writers quoted. It does not represent the opinions of CryptoPotato on whether to buy, sell, or hold any investments. You are advised to conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Use provided information at your own risk. See Disclaimer for more information.

Cryptocurrency charts by TradingView.

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