Billionaire investor Tim Draper is putting the rumors to rest. He explicitly denied moving any of his cryptocurrency holdings on Friday after blockchain tracking firms flagged a high-value transfer to Coinbase. “Haven’t touched my BTC,” Draper told Cointelegraph, immediately dismissing the speculation.
Despite Bitcoin currently trading in the low $60,000 range, the venture capitalist used the opportunity to double down on his most famous forecast. He still predicts the digital asset will reach $250,000 within one year.
The firestorm started on July 2. Blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain cited data from Arkham Intelligence pointing to a wallet tentatively labeled “Tim Draper?” that suddenly woke up. That wallet deposited exactly 1,000 BTC—valued between $61.8 million and $62 million—into the institutional trading platform Coinbase Prime.
Traders assumed the famed “never-sell” whale was preparing to liquidate a portion of his holdings. But Draper’s direct denial on July 3 shut down the initial tracking report regarding the $61.82 million deposit.
The Weight of the 2014 Silk Road Haul
Market watchers track Draper obsessively for a reason. His position is not built on standard retail accumulation. It goes back to a highly publicized government auction. In 2014, Draper purchased roughly 29,656 seized Silk Road Bitcoins from the U.S. Marshals Service.
He paid approximately $18.7 million for the entire batch, which equated to about $632 per coin at the time. Today, that specific stash sits at a valuation exceeding $1.8 billion.