Within a decade, bitcoin will replace U.S. dollar dominance and become the standard currency underpinning the international economy, according to billionaire venture capitalist Tim Draper.
“10 years, something like that. It may be a little less,” Draper said in a wide-ranging Spotlight interview with CoinDesk.
Draper reiterated his prediction that bitcoin will rise to $250,000 by the end of 2025, and that after a decade it will be “infinity against the dollar because there won’t be a dollar.”
“Once I can buy my food, my clothing, my shelter, pay my taxes, all in Bitcoin and it’s a better way to collect taxes. For sure, there won’t be any reason to hold onto any [dollars] and bitcoin will be the primary source of owning wealth,” said Draper.
“The good news here is that banks can now hold your bitcoin and your fiat currency… but you don’t want to be in line at the banks trying to get your dollars out to put them into bitcoin when there is a transformation.”
Draper warned there will be a run on fiat banks and a global shift to the Bitcoin standard as trust in governments wane and decentralized technology replaces the traditional banking system. This was especially evident when Silicon Valley Bank (“SVB”) collapsed in March 2023.
“I got calls from 15 companies, portfolio companies, and they were all saying, I can’t make payroll,” said Draper.
“So every treasury of every company that I fund, I recommend that they have bitcoin along with fiat in banks, so that when there are bank failures, or if people stop taking fiat, then they’ll be able to make payroll anyway.”
SVB’s shuttering was followed by the collapse of Signature Bank and preceded by the liquidation of Silvergate Bank. All three financial institutions had ties to the digital assets industry and were impacted by “contagion effects” in the aftermath of failed crypto exchange FTX, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. But crypto companies have found evidence their demise was accelerated by a covert government debanking campaign, known as Operation Chokepoint 2.0, after a previous government effort to sever controversial but legal businesses from banking.
Draper views bitcoin as a better technology and software that will replace banks and government-issued currency. At an early age, he learned there is precedent in the U.S. for currency crisis when his father gave him a million dollar confederate bill that was essentially worthless.
“Confederates lost the war to the Union and so there was huge inflation in Confederate money and people were paying a million dollars for just $1 of Union money,” said Draper. “In effect, we’re going through a similar time now.”
Draper is a bitcoin maximalist who believes stablecoins are a bridge to bitcoin that will onboard people to utilize digital currencies, but ultimately they are as flawed as the governments that sanction them.
“Stablecoins are subject to inflation. They will inflate if the government prints too much money. They will be worth less and less and less over time, whereas bitcoin is not subject to that,” said Draper.
Even though U.S. President Donald Trump’s global tariff policies go against Draper’s belief in free trade, they hasten his prediction that the U.S. dollar will weaken. The dollar index has dropped almost 8% year to date to 99.96, its lowest level since April 2022. The Trump administration is widely speculated to be analysing ways to devalue the dollar further to make U.S. exports more globally competitive. Nevertheless, Draper is hopeful the U.S. government will negotiate levies down so that trade partners buy more U.S. goods and resume an open market.
Within the U.S., Draper is more confident about domestic tech innovation now that the Securities and Exchange Commission and other federal regulators are “more open to creativity” and have stepped away from the practice of regulation by enforcement.
Other technologies he is invested in include genetics. His early investment in Colossal Biosciences made headlines when the genetics lab created a new species of dire wolf and gene-edited “woolly mice” into existence using a mix of mutations modelled on woolly mammoths. These efforts to “de-extinct” species aim to restore earth’s biological diversity, but Draper believes they will eventually help humans communicate with animals.
“Dogs can smell 10,000 times as well as we can,” said Draper. “My theory is that it’s usually when they’re really happy and they like you, they sneeze on you. What they’re doing is telling you a story, they sneeze on you and then, ‘[Here] are all the things that I’ve done. These are all the things I’ve smelled.’” Draper believes advances in genetics and artificial intelligence will eventually decode the language of birds that “must have 500 different words for wind” and a better understanding of the weather. Humans could also learn from talking to ants about their population management.
“Let’s start communicating with animals. I think it’ll be great and we are getting there,” said Draper. “It’s slow. That’s 50 years out.”
As for artificial intelligence, the most cynical programmers warn that AI’s will eventually dismiss humans as mere carbon bodies with limited use as energy sources, but Draper remains the perpetual optimist.
“I think that humans are going to adapt,” he said.
When artificial intelligence replaces human labor, Draper trusts people will resiliently find new jobs with their newfound productivity, make greater impact, and “gain in quality of life.” Draper believes humans will eventually merge with AI by programming embryos and linking human brains to wifi and other technologies.
“I think it’s going to be incredibly amazing for somebody today who’s still alive 50 years from now, because they’re gonna look back and say, ‘God, those poor people, they were all stuck on earth, just earth,” said Draper. “They had to actually ask their phone for knowledge instead of having their mind anticipate the need for knowledge.”
