Venture capitalist Tim Draper predicts bitcoin will multiply by 30 times within four years.
He made the forecast Thursday evening at his “Draper Block(chain) party” in California.
Draper tweeted early Friday morning New York time that he was predicting “bitcoin at $25k by 2022,” causing confusion among investors.
But he clarified in an afternoon tweet that $250,000 was the correct figure.
Bitcoin traded near $8,100 Friday afternoon, up more than 18 percent for the week, according to Coinbase. The cryptocurrency suddenly shot 17 percent higher Thursday morning. Many traders attributed the spike to investors covering their shorts, or buying back into the market after betting against bitcoin.
Fundstrat Global Research’s Tom Lee, the only major Wall Street strategist to issue bitcoin price targets, expects the cryptocurrency will reach $20,000 by the middle of the year and $25,000 by the end of 2018.
Draper is the founding partner of Draper Associates and DFJ, an early investor in Skype and Chinese search giant Baidu. He bought nearly 30,000 bitcoins in a 2014 U.S. Marshals Service auction, all of which he told CNBC in December he was still holding. If that is still the case, Draper’s bitcoin investment is worth $243 million at Friday’s prices.
He said on CNBC’s “Fast Money” in early March that in five years bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will be the primary means of payment.
