Tim Draper, venture capitalist and founder of Draper Associates, is reportedly meeting with Facebook, Inc.
(NASDAQ: FB) to discuss Facebook’s interest in creating its
own cryptocurrency. According to BitcoinExchangeGuide, Draper is meeting with Facebook to determine whether or not an investment in Facebook Coin “is
a good fit” for Draper Associates.
Facebook Coin
Facebook is reportedly seeking $1 billion in venture capital to help fund the social media giant’s Facebook Coin project.
Facebook users would potentially be able to conduct transactions using Facebook Coin over Facebook messaging app, WhatsApp.
Facebook Coin would reportedly be a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, making it much less volatile than bitcoin and other
popular cryptocurrencies.
Back in December, Facebook hired former PayPal president David Marcus to lead its cryptocurrency and blockchain technology
group. In March, Barclays analyst Ross Sandler said Facebook Coin could ultimately add $19 billion in additional annual
Facebook revenue.
“Any attempt to build out revenue streams outside of advertising, especially those that don’t abuse user privacy are likely to
be well-received by Facebook’s shareholders,” Sandler said.
Cryptocurrency Disruption
Draper has recently said he expects cryptocurrency to ultimately disrupt fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar and help citizens
around the world avoid centralized control. He will be discussing his views on the future of cryptocurrency and blockchain
technology at the upcoming SALT Conference in Las Vegas starting on May 7.
Draper, who was an early investor in companies like Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA), Hotmail and Skype, reportedly earned $89.1 million by investing in bitcoin
starting back in
2014.
Bitcoin prices have nosedived since peaking near $20,000 back in December of 2017. Today, bitcoin trades at $5,094, but Draper
is expecting explosive upside in the years ahead. Draper recently reiterated his prediction bitcoin prices would hit $250,000 by
2022.
“My reasoning is that all these engineers have to create all the things they are doing to make it really easy for us to spend it
and to use it and to move it and to build it into our contracts and all of that,” Draper said. He said his price target is based on the assumption that bitcoin can gain 5 percent market share of all
the world’s currencies.
Draper also lashed out at JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon. Dimon has been highly critical of bitcoin in the past, but
JPMorgan is reportedly developing its own JPM coin. Draper called Dimon’s actions “so ridiculous” and said a cryptocurrency tied to
a bank is never going to perform as well as bitcoin.
Despite a 2019 recovery, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (Btc) (OTC: GBTC) is still down 41.7 percent overall in the past year.
Related Links:
Experts: Bitcoin Will Take Down Gold, Fiat Currencies
Why The Bitcoin Bubble Is Different From All Other Bubbles
Image Credit: JD Lasica via Flickr
© 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.