Tech billionaire Tim Draper, a venture capitalist and avowed cryptocurrency bull, wore a bitcoin tie during an April 12 appearance on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show and nearly broke the internet.
Reddit users posted hundreds of comments about Draper’s unusual fashion style. “That’s Tim Draper. Anyone who’s been around here long enough knows he’s the guy who bought the Silk Road bitcoins from the FBI at auction,” the Reddit thread started.
“Come to think of it, he paid like $600 each for 30,000 coins (could be misremembering) but that would presently be worth a couple hundred million now… enough to afford a custom tie, with probably juuust enough left to buy a lambo or two (hundred).”
One person retorted, “Now he just needs HODL tattooed on his neck.” HODL is the slang term used in the bitcoin community to mean holding on to one’s cryptocurrency investments rather than selling them.
Interestingly, Draper’s bitcoin tie (and accompanying bitcoin lapel pin) was discussed almost as much as the $250,000 bitcoin price target he set for 2022. He made the bold prediction April 12 at the 2018 Block (Chain) Party at his self-named Draper University in California.
“I’m thinking $250,000 a bitcoin by 2022. Believe it!” Draper declared. “They’re going to think you’re crazy, but believe it. It’s happening and it’s going to be awesome!”
Tim Draper was just on Fox News, wearing a purple Bitcoin tie, to talk about splitting California into 3 states. It’s getting weird iut here, folks. pic.twitter.com/hzE9ASpwxn
— Will Piers (@willpiers) April 13, 2018
Draper has a pretty good track record with bitcoin price predictions and is famous for his savvy 2014 decision to purchase 40,000 bitcoins for $600 apiece.
Because bitcoin prices have skyrocketed since then, Draper’s bitcoin stash is now worth a staggering $258 million.
Oops! I predicted $250k in 2022. My tweet last night was missing a zero. $250k is the number!
— Tim Draper (@TimDraper) April 13, 2018
All jokes aside, it has been another stunning week in the volatile cryptocurrency ecosystem, as bitcoin prices rallied above $8,000 after tanking below $7,000 for the past two weeks amid a spate of negative news.
While bitcoin skeptics like Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Shiller of Yale University have dismissed bitcoin as a fad , longtime crypto evangelists like Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee have complete confidence in the virtual currency market.
Lee has set a $25,000 bitcoin price target for the end of 2018. BTC is hovering at about $7,900 as of this writing.
“We still feel pretty confident that bitcoin is a great risk-reward and we think it could reach $25,000 by the end of the year,” Lee predicted.
So, will bitcoin prices rally? Or will they crash, as crypto bears predict? Only time will tell. So, stay tuned.
