According to Draper, he was attracted to the idea of a digital currency not tied to a government.
“So when Bitcoin showed up, I was all over it,” he told Fortune in January. DFJ also holds investments in other cryptocurrency-linked companies, such as exchange Coinbase.
The prediction comes as the price of Bitcoin rises 17% to about $8,000. The cryptocurrency has struggled since the start of 2018, with investors worrying about signs of regulatory crackdowns from governments including that of South Korea. Even now, the value of Bitcoin remains below its price at the start of the year, at about $14,000.
It’s unclear how exactly Draper calculated a price of $250,000 by 2022. Some investors, such as Murray Stahl of Horizon Kinetics, hypothesize that Bitcoin is worth the value of all the currency in the world—about $361,000 per Bitcoin, by Barron’s estimates.