Balaji Srinivasan Ends Bitcoin Bet 97% Below Target Price: Not In 'Habit Of Publicly Burning A Million Bucks'

Balaji Srinivasan, the former CTO at Coinbase COIN, has closed out his $1 million bet on Bitcoin BTC/USD, conceding defeat as the apex cryptocurrency has declined 97% below the target price.

What Happened: Srinivasan has, instead, donated a total of $1.5 million to three different organizations, including $500,000 to Bitcoin Core developers, $500,000 to a non-profit charity Give Directly, and $500,000 to a pseudonymous Twitter user.

"I settled the bet ahead of time and donated even more than I had committed," Srinivasan tweeted.

He explained that the reason for closing out the wager around $970,000, below his target price of a $1 million per Bitcoin, was because he believes in the need for the public to raise awareness on the state of the economy, and also due to possible hyperinflation.

See More: Top Indian Apps That Give Bitcoin, NFT Rewards

According to Srinivasan, citizens can no longer "rely on the public sector […] to tell us when something’s wrong." He further elaborated that he is not "in the habit of publicly burning a million bucks." 

"I spent my own money to send a provably costly signal that there's something wrong with the economy, and that it’s not going to be a ‘soft landing' like Powell promises — but something much worse," he added.

Why It Matters: Despite conceding the bet, Srinivasan remains convinced that the value of Bitcoin will eventually reach $1 million.

In March, Srinivasan made a bet with a pseudonymous Twitter user, James Medlock, that Bitcoin’s price would reach $1 million by June 17. If it didn’t, Medlock would receive $1 million in the dollar-pegged stablecoin USD Coin as well as 1 BTC.

 Price Action: At the time of writing, BTC was trading at $28,518 up 1.78% in the last 24 hours, according to Benzinga Pro.

Read More: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin Trade Mixed Amid Regulatory Uncertainty: Analyst Says Apex Crypto Isn’t Getting A Boost Despite Upbeat Mood On Wall Street