Balaji Srinivasan, and why we should be worried about his $2 million bet

Enrique Dans
Enrique Dans
Published in
4 min readMar 23, 2023

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IMAGE: A supposed graph predicting a skyrocketing appreciation of the bitcoin to $1M in 90 days

On March 17, Balaji Srinivasan made the following prediction on Twitter: the value of bitcoin, then around $26,000, would increase to $1 million within the next 90 days. What’s more, he did not stop at the prediction, and offered to place $2 million in an escrow account and exchange one million for one bitcoin within ninety days, in mid-June: two people accepted the bet.

What’s interesting about this particular bet is who placed it: Balaji Srinivasan, the former chief technology officer of Coinbase, a former partner of venture capital fund Andreessen Horowitz, investor, co-founder of several companies, with a PhD in engineering from Stanford and author of “The Network State”, a best-selling e-book that looks at how the blockchain and cryptocurrencies will replace government fiat. Balaji is widely respected in the crypto community, and for him to suddenly make such a prediction has made an impact.

Obviously, predicting that bitcoin could reach a valuation of $1 million within 90 days is more than about the value of bitcoin: Srinivasan is also predicting the collapse in the value of the dollar, a crisis in the US currency due to bank failures, hyperinflation and similar catastrophes, and a total loss of confidence in the system. According to Balaji, what will happen is that the world will rename…

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Enrique Dans
Enrique Dans

Professor of Innovation at IE Business School and blogger (in English here and in Spanish at enriquedans.com)