December 2, 2023

“You purchase 1 BTC. I’ll ship $1M USD.”

These have been the stakes that enterprise capitalist Balaji Srinivasan proposed over Twitter to pseudonymous author and self-described “tax enthusiast” James Medlock on March 17. The guess? Inside 90 days, one bitcoin shall be price $1 million.

Medlock, who had jokingly tweeted earlier that he would “guess anybody $1 million {dollars} that the US doesn’t enter hyperinflation,” shortly accepted the phrases. With bitcoin hovering round $26,000, Srinivasan had made an roughly 38–1 wager that “hyperbitcoinization” would unfold over the following three months because the Federal Reserve devalued the U.S. greenback to backstop the nation’s shaky banks with new infusions of money.

Critics have stated the guess is a promotional ploy to launch a brand new media model or to pump the price of bitcoin to extend the worth of his holdings. His doubters embrace George Mason College economist Tyler Cowen, who predicts that “the US will muddle via its present issues and patch up the current on the expense of the longer term,” and bitcoin mega-booster Saifedean Ammous, writer of The Bitcoin Commonplace, who writes “I really feel soiled sounding bearish on bitcoin, however I don’t assume bitcoin will hit $1m in 90 days & and I don’t assume the greenback can probably hyperinflate this shortly.”

So what’s Srinivasan considering?

Discover out this Thursday at 1 p.m. Jap as Srinivasan joins Cause‘s Zach Weissmueller and economist Lawrence White, writer of Higher Cash: Gold, Fiat, or Bitcoin? to debate the guess and their analyses of the state of the U.S. banking system. Watch and depart questions and feedback on the YouTube video above or on Cause‘s Fb web page.

Present notes:
Balaji Srinivasan’s guess with James Medlock—https://twitter.com/balajis/standing/1636822077775941633

Federal Reserve to supply extra funds for banks, backstopped with $25 billion from the Treasury—https://archive.is/qrZYB#selection-4839.93-4839.251

Bloomberg: Fed might inject as much as $2 trillion—https://www.bloomberg.com/information/articles/2023-03-16/jpmorgan-says-fed-s-loans-will-provide-2-trillion-of-liquidity

Research on uninsured financial institution deposits in 2023—https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4387676

Bloomberg: Fed low cost window lending surpasses $164 billion -https://www.bloomberg.com/information/articles/2023-03-16/banks-rush-to-backstop-liquidity-borrow-164-8-billion-from-fed#xj4y7vzkg

St. Louis Fed: Fed stability sheet since 2004—https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?id=WALCL

Tyler Cowen: The banking disaster will not wreck the financial system—https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2023/03/this-banking-crisis-wont-wreck-the-economy.html

Ammous Safeidean: A financial institution disaster is deflationary—https://twitter.com/saifedean/standing/1638453109033664513

FedNow Service launches in July: https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/other20230315a.htm

Jerome Powell addresses banking disaster and charge hikes—https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK6EfnYkejc

Janet Yellen voices concern for a ‘few’ banks—https://www.youtube.com/stay/je-6S97KKqY?function=share&t=4049

DeSantis introduced Digital Invoice of Rights—https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLPcqRS8978