Former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan has ended his bet that Bitcoin will reach $1 million within 90-days.
In a tweet on Tuesday, Srinivasan told his 900,000 followers that he had closed out the million-dollar bet by mutual agreement and had made $1.5 million in on-chain donations to three different groups.
I JUST BURNED A MILLION TO TELL YOU THEY'RE PRINTING TRILLIONS
The million dollar bet is now closed out by mutual agreement. I made $1M+ in provable on-chain donations, which you can verify by clicking the links below:
1) $500k to Bitcoin Core development via Chaincode:… pic.twitter.com/J9nwxZAAhD
— Balaji (@balajis) May 2, 2023
After the consecutive bank failures of Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank in March, Srinivasan predicted that Bitcoin would surge to $1 million within a 90-day time frame, triggered by a collapse in the U.S. dollar and hyperinflation.
At the opposite end of that bet was Twitter user James Medlock, who received $500,000 in USDC from Srinivasan after the bet was settled on Tuesday.
Srinivasan also sent $500,000 USDC to Bitcoin Core development firm Chaincode Labs and another $500,000 USDC to non-profit organization GiveDirectly. The transactions can be seen on-chain and also confirmed by the recipients on social media.
At press time, Bitcoin was trading at around $28,700, having risen a mere 10% since the time the bet was made. Many believe that closing the bet early was an inevitable outcome and in doing so, Srinivasan was essentially “copping out” of a bad prediction.
It was so incredibly and provably wrong he ended the bet early and paid it out. The net effect of the bail-out was disinflationary, not hyperinflation.
Goal posts moved to "I did this to prove a point."https://t.co/ff7iKe6xsi
— Dave Rekuc (@DaveRekuc) May 2, 2023
Still, Srinivasan claims that the bet was settled ahead of time with a larger payout than necessary to send a message about the extent of the Federal Reserve’s money printing. To prove his point, Srinivasan highlighted that the Fed printed $300 billion two days after SVB’s collapse.
“So I spent my own money to send a provably costly signal that there’s something wrong with the economy, and that it’s not going to be a “soft landing” like Powell promises — but something much worse,” said Srinivasan on Twitter.
