Coinbase CTO lose his 1million bet

[Wapfika]

”The former chief technology officer at crypto exchange Coinbase Balaji Srinivasan said his $1 million bet on bitcoin (BTC) has been closed out ahead of time, and he has donated $1.5 million ($500,000 more than required) to three different entities as settlement.”

https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/05/02/balaji-closes-bitcoin-bet-with-15m-in-donations-including-500k-for-bitcoin-core-development/

I find it weird since this bet is obviously bullshit because Bitcoin will never gonna hit 1M$ in 90days. This CTO is not dumb enough to waste money on this sure lose but.

I’m speculating that this guy is trying to get away with taxes by sending his money as donation on projects that he is involved behind. I smell tax evasion on this rather than a lose bet. What do you think?

[hugeblack]

I'm not a legal expert, but is this donation enough to evade taxes? If so, many will take advantage of this loophole in the tax system.

My personal opinion of her is that he is trying to pay that money to individuals, but he is ashamed of the reason for paying, perhaps because of a scandal, or to silence their voice, or for any legal or illegal reason, and therefore such treatment will reduce the damage to his reputation.

All in all, regardless of the reason, betting $1 million on Bitcoin seems like a pretty crazy idea.

[franky1]

I’m speculating that this guy is trying to get away with taxes by sending his money as donation on projects that he is involved behind. I smell tax evasion on this rather than a lose bet. What do you think?

his money being spent is not tax evasion on his part becasue he is not the receiver

as for the 3 "entities" there are many ways they can avoid tax on their receipt. most of the time its doing personal loans with non enforced repayment of service or $1 in 30 years to settle it (limp terms)

[Hispo]

It sounds rather silly someone would bet that amount on Bitcoin going in maximum bubble territory in less than 90 days, specially when we talk about 1 million dollars. So I agree with you that there is something really fishy going on or that person simply suffers from very serious bad compulsive decisions and should get help as soon as possible.

It is possible there is some tax evasion going on, because as far as I am informed in many countries people get tax discounts for important quantities of money donated to organizations, in the United States one can also get those benefits by declaring one has given gifts. Perhaps the people behind those organizations are friends or family members of him, who knows, it would not the the first time something like that happened. 

[KiaKia]

Wapfika, I will like to tell you to keep quiet, there might be ghosts SEC workers on here reading this right now, don't say such thing again or you will keep giving people the clue, just joking  

I thought Coinbase is ready to leave the united states because of regulation issue that they want to be resolved fairly? Anyways it's pretty hard to know why this man decided to gamble this money away, that's a lot and I believe there might be more to this move.

For him to think that Bitcoin can reach 1m dollars is crazy because we are still struggling to see Bitcoin over 100k, I knew this was nonsense when I first read about the news about the gamble, 99% knew that he is going to lose that money.

[darkangel11]

For him to think that Bitcoin can reach 1m dollars is crazy because we are still struggling to see Bitcoin over 100k, I knew this was nonsense when I first read about the news about the gamble, 99% knew that he is going to lose that money.

Not that crazy if you think that people were hoping for bitcoin to reach $1 then $10, $100, $100, $10000... Every few years it's another "unreachable goal" that people talk about and dream what cars and boats they'll buy if it goes there and then boom - it does.
I think that it's very likely bitcoin will reach 1m in the next 10 years, but yes, the prediction of 1m right now was largely exaggerated

I think that he did it to raise awareness, boost cofidence... Maybe he was trading on leverage and wanted just 10% rise in value to be even on his bet?
Think about it. You put 10m on the line on 2x leverage. If bitcoin goes up 10% you get 2m in profit. You bet 1m to potentially get 2m if that boosts market confidence enough.

[Wapfika]

Wapfika, I will like to tell you to keep quiet, there might be ghosts SEC workers on here reading this right now, don't say such thing again or you will keep giving people the clue, just joking  

I thought Coinbase is ready to leave the united states because of regulation issue that they want to be resolved fairly? Anyways it's pretty hard to know why this man decided to gamble this money away, that's a lot and I believe there might be more to this move.

For him to think that Bitcoin can reach 1m dollars is crazy because we are still struggling to see Bitcoin over 100k, I knew this was nonsense when I first read about the news about the gamble, 99% knew that he is going to lose that money.

You made me laugh mate. I think some personal of SEC is really secretly lurking around here because Bitcointalk is the popular hangout of crypto enthusiasts. 

I thought Coinbase is ready to leave the united states because of regulation issue that they want to be resolved fairly? Anyways it's pretty hard to know why this man decided to gamble this money away, that's a lot and I believe there might be more to this move.

Yeah, But surely it will be uncover soon because SEC and IRS is not dumb to bite this gimmick of betting on nonsense bets. There’s something fishy on this.

For him to think that Bitcoin can reach 1m dollars is crazy because we are still struggling to see Bitcoin over 100k, I knew this was nonsense when I first read about the news about the gamble, 99% knew that he is going to lose that money.

All I can say is he is playing dumb to cover his real motive. He has nothing to gain on betting like this on newly recovering market. Also coinbase is struggling which means he has no luxury to made such bet while his company is burning down.

[passwordnow]

Such a scapegoat with that bet he's offered. Well, he's able to get the attention of everyone and probably had added up to the hype that he's trying to build during that time. Maybe it's all planned and this is part of his scheme. I'm a believer that someday Bitcoin will reach $1M and even higher but then not with the span that he's betting for. We could give it to him that he's able to gain the attention of the masses and the media for having this type of bet regardless of the result and his decision of closing it out.

[Gyfts]

https://twitter.com/balajis/status/1636797265317867520

Here's his tweet.

Doesn't seem like there's anything nefarious about it. The receiver "James Medlock" seems like a genuine account.

Anyways, it was a ridiculous bet to take. USD is more resilient than a few banking collapses as we saw in 2008. If the currency can handle itself from one crisis to the next, it'll take much longer for it to something actually catastrophic to come along and completely wipe it off the map. USD will eventually fail, it'll take a bit more time than some of the crypto bros might predict.

[avikz]

I’m speculating that this guy is trying to get away with taxes by sending his money as donation on projects that he is involved behind. I smell tax evasion on this rather than a lose bet. What do you think?

I doubt that! IRS is not stupid. If the former CTO has direct/indirect connection with the entities where he had donated money, IRS is well capable of finding that. So I am sure a person of his status will do such kind of activities. Not at least for tax evasion. It's not so easy.

But one thing I am wondering about, why would someone speculate that bitcoin will reach a million dollar valuation within this time frame! That's pure stupidity.

[coolcoinz]

I’m speculating that this guy is trying to get away with taxes by sending his money as donation on projects that he is involved behind. I smell tax evasion on this rather than a lose bet. What do you think?

I doubt that! IRS is not stupid. If the former CTO has direct/indirect connection with the entities where he had donated money, IRS is well capable of finding that. So I am sure a person of his status will do such kind of activities. Not at least for tax evasion. It's not so easy.

But one thing I am wondering about, why would someone speculate that bitcoin will reach a million dollar valuation within this time frame! That's pure stupidity.

The CTO isn't stupid either. He had to know what chance of success his bet has and with the coming FED rate hike that 80% of people expected (according to the polls), there's not going to be a large bounce back in stocks and bitcoin. Possible large bankruptcies that in long term would pump bitcoin in short term were expected to start panic where people only care about getting money from banks and not about investing it.

I think that it's possible he made more than one bet and only announced one of them.

Do you remember the joke Tarantino told in Desperado about the bet with the bartender? Look it up if you don't.
It's all about the things you're aware of and not aware of. You may be thinking the guy must be stupid to make that bet, but you don't know the whole story. He could be making a lot of money on this.

[Fortify]

”The former chief technology officer at crypto exchange Coinbase Balaji Srinivasan said his $1 million bet on bitcoin (BTC) has been closed out ahead of time, and he has donated $1.5 million ($500,000 more than required) to three different entities as settlement.”

https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/05/02/balaji-closes-bitcoin-bet-with-15m-in-donations-including-500k-for-bitcoin-core-development/

I find it weird since this bet is obviously bullshit because Bitcoin will never gonna hit 1M$ in 90days. This CTO is not dumb enough to waste money on this sure lose but.

I’m speculating that this guy is trying to get away with taxes by sending his money as donation on projects that he is involved behind. I smell tax evasion on this rather than a lose bet. What do you think?

This money is an absolute pittance to the CEO and is more likely to be some subversive free advertising - that probably worked and will be repeated many times by different news sites, each time featuring Coinbase as a prominent word. They probably spend much more on advertising and theoretically he could put this through the company accounts as such, with some rather creative accounting. Coinbase is a money generating machine, especially with all the recent peer to peer exchanges shutting down. They have less competitors now and the price of Bitcoin has been trending up a bit lately. They are also one of the few biggest exchanges who have a genuine US stock listing.

[carlfebz2]

”The former chief technology officer at crypto exchange Coinbase Balaji Srinivasan said his $1 million bet on bitcoin (BTC) has been closed out ahead of time, and he has donated $1.5 million ($500,000 more than required) to three different entities as settlement.”

https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/05/02/balaji-closes-bitcoin-bet-with-15m-in-donations-including-500k-for-bitcoin-core-development/

I find it weird since this bet is obviously bullshit because Bitcoin will never gonna hit 1M$ in 90days. This CTO is not dumb enough to waste money on this sure lose but.

I’m speculating that this guy is trying to get away with taxes by sending his money as donation on projects that he is involved behind. I smell tax evasion on this rather than a lose bet. What do you think?

We cant really make out some conclusions if this was intentional or just trying out to play dumb just to avoid or evade taxes? If ever he do able to donate or give out 1.5M instead of 1 which adding up some
500k for bitcoin development then it does simply shows that he's really that a huge supporter of Bitcoin. He might be able to lose up a million_ but doesnt mean that it is really that indeed over
or having the same that he had failed out such bet. Lots of us or 99.9% are really that believing that there's no way on touching up that price in a short time or basically it was already
that a sure loss type of bet.

Good thing that there's someone who do able to take up that bet but actually it was really just that indeed an easy money for a short duration of time. In speaking
about possible tax evasion then we cant really point out fingers about those things. Its never been that good on assuming that bad on someone.  

[BIT-BENDER]

I’m speculating that this guy is trying to get away with taxes by sending his money as donation on projects that he is involved behind. I smell tax evasion on this rather than a lose bet. What do you think?

It’s definitely not a way for him to evade tax, the taxation system does work that way firstly
# where is making the donation to was said and there would be a back check on this places.
# also he staked his own money that was already made, be clear that the money I placed on the bet wasn’t gotten from his earning from betting so that has nothing to do with taxation yet because no income was made.

I would say he is big on betting to you it might be a stupid bet but to him it was a bet that he thought was possible.

[Casdinyard]

I'm not a legal expert, but is this donation enough to evade taxes? If so, many will take advantage of this loophole in the tax system.

My personal opinion of her is that he is trying to pay that money to individuals, but he is ashamed of the reason for paying, perhaps because of a scandal, or to silence their voice, or for any legal or illegal reason, and therefore such treatment will reduce the damage to his reputation.

All in all, regardless of the reason, betting $1 million on Bitcoin seems like a pretty crazy idea.

Or perhaps just because he lost a bet to those guys? I mean that's the most logical path at which this progresses. No signs of any conspiracy brewing under our noses but that doesn't mean we should dismiss it. For all I know this "donation" can easily be written off of his taxes and could very well keep the IRS off his ass for a while, so he didn't really lose anything in the process.

As for the betting, I don't think that's deranged too, he probably did that in hopes of riling the people to his side but he's no 2020 Elon Musk, people outside of FinTech Crypto don't even know who he is, let alone what he could do. So while the bet was within the realms of logic, I see why it didn't go so well.

[tygeade]

Wapfika, I will like to tell you to keep quiet, there might be ghosts SEC workers on here reading this right now, don't say such thing again or you will keep giving people the clue, just joking  

I thought Coinbase is ready to leave the united states because of regulation issue that they want to be resolved fairly? Anyways it's pretty hard to know why this man decided to gamble this money away, that's a lot and I believe there might be more to this move.

For him to think that Bitcoin can reach 1m dollars is crazy because we are still struggling to see Bitcoin over 100k, I knew this was nonsense when I first read about the news about the gamble, 99% knew that he is going to lose that money.

Lol . But seriously, CTO made a weird bet, and I think it wasn't even a bet and he was just going to do it anyway and he just wanted to make it public. As in he couldn't just go "look at me donating to people!! wow I am such a good person!!" because that would be a bad move and not only he would donate 1.5 million but he would be disliked for it, that's a bad idea.

But instead, he made a fake bet, and that way not only he donated, but he wasn't considered a bad person and he was thought as a fool at best, but not bad person, and his donation got public awareness anyway at the same time. That seems like the only possible idea and should be considered as the reality, that is what has happened if you ask me and that is why it probably worked the way he wanted it to work.

[stompix]

The CTO isn't stupid either.

He might not be stupid but this was beyond stupid.
And his statement is just as cringy:

"I just burned a million to tell you they're printing trillions,

No, what you've managed to do in the eyes of the neutral ones, not the crypto and not pro banks users who read this is making a fool of you and making people think crypto lovers are just people who have their pockets full of cash and can afford to throw money left and right because they make more out of tricking others with their doomsday cries. That's all he has managed to do with this!
Remember McAfee? Th same thing, all that was left was just ridicule!

Do you remember the joke Tarantino told in Desperado about the bet with the bartender? Look it up if you don't.

This has more to do with the guy from 4 Lions entering a shawarma place to blow up the infidels!

This money is an absolute pittance to the CEO and is more likely to be some subversive free advertising - that probably worked and will be repeated many times by different news sites, each time featuring Coinbase as a prominent word. They probably spend much more on advertising and theoretically he could put this through the company accounts as such, with some rather creative accounting. Coinbase is a money generating machine, especially with all the recent peer to peer exchanges shutting down. They have less competitors now and the price of Bitcoin has been trending up a bit lately. They are also one of the few biggest exchanges who have a genuine US stock listing.

Tiny problem with your theory!
The guy is a former CTO of Coinbase, he left Coinbase 4 years ago!

[so98nn]

”The former chief technology officer at crypto exchange Coinbase Balaji Srinivasan said his $1 million bet on bitcoin (BTC) has been closed out ahead of time, and he has donated $1.5 million ($500,000 more than required) to three different entities as settlement.”

https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/05/02/balaji-closes-bitcoin-bet-with-15m-in-donations-including-500k-for-bitcoin-core-development/

I find it weird since this bet is obviously bullshit because Bitcoin will never gonna hit 1M$ in 90days. This CTO is not dumb enough to waste money on this sure lose but.

I’m speculating that this guy is trying to get away with taxes by sending his money as donation on projects that he is involved behind. I smell tax evasion on this rather than a lose bet. What do you think?

Yes, tax evasion or maybe something like insider job pre-launch? I mean imagine he was trying to lure peeps on the coinbase or his followers on social networks (if he has any). He could have been trying to show some bulls with his heavy toll of million-dollar bets that he is confident about the speculation that he made. This way peeps might start building up more resistance to the bitcoin prices and do the simple jobs for him or his colleagues by pushing the bitcoin to higher levels.

Though that is definitely impossible considering the volume of Bitcoin and its daily market cap. But who knows, a million bet on speculation could trigger any sort of fission amongst the investors. Especially the millionaires

[Die_empty]

I’m speculating that this guy is trying to get away with taxes by sending his money as donation on projects that he is involved behind. I smell tax evasion on this rather than a lose bet. What do you think?

I am sure Balaji Srinivasan knows that he will lose this bet. Nobody can figure out the reason for this action, all we can do now is to speculate. But believe me, after a few years the truth will be unveiled. My prediction is that he is suffering from "too much money syndrome". I have seen millionaires misbehave because they have so much money to spend. His prediction was weird and it could also be possible that he was high on drugs when he placed that bet. It could also be that he has an interest or sympathy for those companies and the individual he sent the funds. I also think that he is covering his tracks, maybe paying a hush money.

[umbara ardian]

It is likely that this is part of a larger strategy to attract attention and create hype around Bitcoin and the broader crypto market. That might surprise people and make them learn about him. Or maybe he did it to avoid being ridiculed and hated by people because such a donation would easily make people question money laundering. No matter what his motives are, the purpose is success; this is what he wants to show everyone about how he acts.