Balaji Srinivasan loses $1 million bet on fiat economy collapse

Balaji Srinivasan prematurely acknowledged his defeat in the wager about Bitcoin reaching $1 million by June 17. The former Coinbase CTO said the move was to signal the government’s “printing press” of trillions of dollars.

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

Srinivasan donated the amount he lost, providing on-chain proofs.

The expert sent $500,000 in USDC to Bitcoin Core developers, the Give Directly organization, and the bet’s opponent — economist James Medlock.

The bet was cancelled by mutual agreement.

The dispute stemmed from Medlock’s doubts about the United States’ economy moving into a hyperinflationary state, to which Srinivasan disagreed, proposing a bet.

Under the terms, if Bitcoin did not reach $1 million by June 17, Medlock would win $1 million and receive his stake in 1 BTC. Similarly, if by that date or earlier the first cryptocurrency reached the threshold, Srinivasan would be entitled to win 1 BTC and the return of $1 million.

Despite the loss, the former Coinbase CTO expressed confidence that the United States is in the midst of a “fiat crisis”.

He explained the decision to concede as an effort to prove that the situation remains dire, which would push people to “flee into cryptocurrency.” This would lead to the so-called “hyper-bitcoinisation”, he noted in March.

«I paid up in advance and donated even more than I had planned. I spent my own money to send a signal that something is wrong with the economy, and this will not be a ‘soft landing’, as promised by the chair of the Fed, Jerome Powell, but something much worse», Srinivasan explained.

The expert noted that society is losing trust in a government that hides that something is wrong.

«Many things are collapsing at once», he warned.

The economist and author of “The Bitcoin Standard”, Saifedean Ammous did not back the forecast that the first cryptocurrency would reach $1 million by mid-June.

Earlier, analysts from ARK Invest forecast that the prices of digital gold will exceed $1 million by 2030.