Has this ever happened before?

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An ex-Coinbase executive banked big on Bitcoin bouncing back — and ended up cashing out his alliterative bet early once it was clear that he was going to lose.

In an embarrassingly-long Twitter Blue subscriber post, Bitcoin booster Balaji Srinivasan explained why he closed out his $1 million bet that the cryptocurrency would reach incredible new heights within 90 days.

Earlier this year, Srinivasan — known, like Madonna or Cher, by his first name Balaji in crypto circles — took up pseudonymous leftish blogger James Medlock when the latter tweeted that he would "bet anyone $1 million dollars that the US does not enter hyperinflation."

To prove his confidence in the cryptocurrency, Srinivasan — who also used to work at the blockchain-loving Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm — reportedly wagered, per Politico, 1 Bitcoin, which at the time was worth $30,000 and would, he said, be worth $1 million by June 17.

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There's more than a month left before June 17, but Bitcoin's value is now actually slightly less than $30,000 per token — and, perhaps strangest of all, it appears that the crypto bro is willing to admit defeat and put up half a million more than he originally offered to boot.

"I’m not a trader, I’m not John McAfee, and I’m not in the habit of publicly burning a million bucks," Srinivasan wrote in his Facebook Notes-length tweet. "The reason I did this was because I do believe in the public good, but unfortunately we can't rely on the public sector anymore to tell us when something's wrong."

But citing the lack of official alarm-sounding ahead of the 2008 financial collapse, Srinivasan suggested that the Federal Reserve's current tune can't be trusted.

"So I spent my own money to send a provably costly signal that there’s something wrong with the economy, and that it's not going to be a 'soft landing' like [Fed chair Jerome] Powell promises — but something much worse," he continued.

There's something weirdly satisfying about a Bitcoin bro putting his money where his mouth is and not being a sore loser — and he may make some good points about the direction of the economy, too.

More on crypto bets: Coinbase Is Suing the SEC


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