Tim Draper, Legendary Venture Capitalist
Biography
Tim Draper was born on June 11, 1958, into a prominent venture capital family. His father, Bill Draper, and grandfather, William H. Draper Jr., were both pioneering venture capitalists. Tim graduated from Stanford University with a BS in Electrical Engineering and earned his MBA from Harvard Business School. In 1985, he founded Draper Associates, and later co-founded Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), which became one of Silicon Valley’s most successful venture capital firms.
Draper’s investment portfolio reads like a who’s who of technology: he was an early investor in Hotmail, Skype, Tesla, Baidu, SpaceX, Coinbase, and Twitch, among many others. He is credited with pioneering viral marketing through Hotmail’s iconic “Get your free email at Hotmail” tagline. In 2000, he founded Draper University of Heroes in San Mateo, California, an entrepreneurial academy that trains the next generation of business leaders. His estimated net worth is approximately $1.5 billion.
Orange Pill Story
Tim Draper’s Bitcoin origin story is one of the most legendary in the cryptocurrency world. In 2014, the U.S. Marshals Service auctioned off approximately 30,000 Bitcoin that had been seized from the Silk Road marketplace. Draper won the entire auction, purchasing all 30,000 BTC for roughly $19 million — approximately $632 per coin at the time. This bold purchase instantly made him one of the largest known individual Bitcoin holders and cemented his reputation as a visionary Bitcoin bull.
From that moment, Draper became arguably the most consistently bullish Bitcoin advocate in the public sphere. In 2014, he predicted Bitcoin would reach $10,000 by 2018 — a prediction that proved accurate. He then famously predicted Bitcoin would hit $250,000 by the end of 2022, a timeline that proved too aggressive but demonstrated his unwavering long-term conviction. Draper’s Bitcoin evangelism extended beyond his personal holdings, as he began requiring Draper University students to use Bitcoin for tuition payments and transactions on campus.
Bitcoin Philosophy & Quotes
“I think Bitcoin is going to be huge. I’m looking at it as one of the greatest investments of all time.” — Tim Draper TechCrunch, July 2014
“In five years, if you try to use fiat currency, they will laugh at you. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will be so relevant that there’ll be no reason to have the fiat currencies.” — Tim Draper Fortune, July 2014
“I’m not selling. I’m buying more Bitcoin.” — Tim Draper CoinDesk, July 2014
“Bitcoin is bigger than the internet. It’s bigger than the Iron Age, the Renaissance. It’s bigger than the Industrial Revolution.” — Tim Draper ABC News
“The governments of the world are going to have to change the way they operate because of Bitcoin.” — Tim Draper Bitcoin Magazine
“I only have five percent of my net worth in fiat. Everything else is in Bitcoin.” — Tim Draper CoinDesk
“Women and millennials are going to drive the next wave of Bitcoin adoption.” — Tim Draper Yahoo Finance
“I’m a Bitcoin maximalist. I think Bitcoin is going to eat the world.” — Tim Draper Benzinga, 2021
“Bitcoin is freedom. It gives people economic freedom from their governments.” — Tim Draper Wikipedia
“When I bought those 30,000 bitcoins, everyone thought I was crazy. Now they’re calling me a genius. I’m neither — I just see where the world is going.” — Tim Draper Celebrity Net Worth
Involvement with Bitcoin
Tim Draper’s involvement with Bitcoin is extensive and multifaceted. His purchase of approximately 30,000 Bitcoin from the U.S. Marshals Service Silk Road auction in June 2014 remains one of the most famous Bitcoin acquisitions in history. At Bitcoin’s all-time high, those coins were worth over $2 billion. Draper has repeatedly stated he has no intention of selling.
Through Draper Associates and his various venture funds, he has invested in numerous Bitcoin and crypto companies including Coinbase, Ledger (hardware wallet manufacturer), Tezos, and various Bitcoin exchanges around the world. He was an early investor in Coinbase, which went public in 2021 at a valuation exceeding $80 billion, representing one of the most successful crypto-related venture investments.
Draper University incorporates Bitcoin into its curriculum, and Draper has pushed for Bitcoin acceptance at the campus, allowing students to pay tuition in Bitcoin. He has been a tireless speaker at Bitcoin conferences worldwide, including Bitcoin Miami, Consensus, and countless crypto events. Draper also actively lobbied against unfavorable cryptocurrency regulations, including opposing New York’s BitLicense in 2015, which he called “horrible” for innovation.
Media Appearances & Coverage
Tim Draper is one of the most frequently interviewed Bitcoin advocates in mainstream media. He has appeared on CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox Business, CNN, and BBC numerous times to discuss Bitcoin. His $250,000 Bitcoin price prediction has been covered extensively by Forbes, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, and Business Insider. CoinDesk and Bitcoin Magazine have profiled his investment thesis and Silk Road auction purchase in depth. He appeared on the Anthony Pompliano podcast, the What Bitcoin Did podcast, and numerous other crypto-focused shows. His viral moments include refusing to discuss anything but Bitcoin during television interviews and wearing a Bitcoin tie on every major media appearance.
Notable Bitcoin Tweets
Tim Draper, billionaire venture capitalist, famously purchased nearly 30,000 bitcoins at a U.S. Marshals auction of Silk Road assets in 2014 and has been one of the most bullish and persistent Bitcoin price predictors in the investment world.
“Bitcoin frees people from trying to operate in a modern world economy with antiquated monetary systems.”
— @TimDraper, 2014
View Source →
“There will come a moment when retailers only accept Bitcoin and no longer accept fiat currency.”
— @TimDraper
View Source →
“The dollar and other fiat currencies will eventually be replaced. Bitcoin is the future of money.”
— @TimDraper, 2021
View Source →
Related Bitcoin Quotes
