The former Coinbase executive settled the high stake 45 days early, but remains convinced that a “fiat crisis” is inevitable.
A million dollar bet on the price of Bitcoin BTC
€25,863 it has closed 97% below its target price, and its sponsor, Balaji Srinivasan, has chosen to donate a total of USD 1.5 million to three different entities as stake payment.
On May 2, Srinivasan, a former Coinbase CTO, said the bet had been “closed by mutual consent” 45 days in advance.
As a settlement, Srinivasan paid $500,000 James Medlock, a pseudonymous Twitter user and self-described “hyperinflation doubter,” donated $500,000 to Bitcoin Core developers and another $500,000 to the non-profit charity; Give Directly.
“I paid the bet early and donated even more than he told me,” Srinivasan tweeted.
“I am not in the habit of publicly burning a million dollars,” Srinivasan added, explaining that the reason for closing the bet some $970,000 below his $1 million price target for Bitcoin was because he believes “in the public good” and citizens can no longer “trust the public sector […] to tell us when it’s wrong”.
“I’ve spent my own money to send a costly and proven signal that something is wrong with the economy, and that it’s not going to be a ‘soft landing’ as Powell promises, but something far worse.”
Despite giving away a total of $1.5 million, Srinivasan remains convinced that the US economy will eventually reach a state of hyperinflation. In his view, investors will rush to lock in the value of their increasingly devalued dollars in Bitcoin, rapidly driving the asset’s value up to a price tag of $1 million.
The high stakes began on March 17 after a disagreement between Srinivasan and pseudonymous Twitter user James Medlock. Medlock initially tweeted that he would bet someone a million dollars that the US dollar would not go into any state of hyperinflation.
The conditions of the bet stipulated that if the price of Bitcoin did not reach $1 million by June 17, Medlock would receive $1 million in the USD Coin stablecoin.
USDC
€0.91, as well as an additional 1 BTC. Conversely, if the price of an individual Bitcoin was valued at $1 million by the same date, then Balaji could keep the Bitcoin and $1 million in USDC.
Bitcoin is currently trading at just over $28,700 and has a market capitalization of $556 billion, according to Cointelegraph data .
