Tim Draper, one of the most famous venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, has played a crucial role in the Draper VC dynasty. Not only because he was an early investor in technology companies such as Tesla or Skype, but also because he made a turning point in the Draper family’s path to Bitcoin (BTC).
In the latest episode of Cointelegraph’s Crypto Stories, Draper tells the story of how the Draper dynasty became bullish on Bitcoin, the broader crypto market and blockchain technology.
The Draper family’s crypto history began many years ago when Tim Draper became interested in ways to exchange virtual goods for fiat currency and vice versa.
“I met this great guy from Korea and he said he had to buy his son a sword and it was for his son’s birthday and it was $40,” Draper recalled of his early crypto thoughts. The sword turned out not to be a real sword, but a virtual one, prompting Draper to think about virtual stores of value versus traditional money. He said:
“So people buy virtual goods with fiat currency”_blank” href=” came in 2009, Draper was already looking for something like BTC cryptocurrency and he soon started accumulating BTC. “It was the universal currency, it was the currency of our whole earth,” he said.
Even after losing 40,000 Bitcoin to the collapsed exchange Mt. Gox back in 2011, Draper didn’t lose faith in Satoshi Nakamoto’s cryptocurrency. He continued to buy Bitcoin, picking up 30,000 BTC from a government auction of bitcoins seized from Silk Road in 2014.
Related: Tim Draper advises entrepreneurs to have “at least” two payrolls “value of cash” in crypto
Tim Draper’s passion for cryptocurrency was naturally passed on to his sons, Adam and Billy Draper. A fourth-generation venture capitalist, Adam Draper founded Boost VC in 2012, an early stage venture capital firm focused on crypto. The company raised $90 million for its third round in September 2022. Adam’s brother, Billy Draper, has also been vocal about the cryptocurrency industry.
According to Tim Draper, both of his sons somehow got involved in the crypto industry after he became a Bitcoin bull.
Tim, Billy, Bill Draper, Adam and Eleanor Draper. Source: Draper Cygnus
“My son was very enthusiastic about me doing it. Both sons were actually working with me, and the other was starting a Boost accelerator, and he decided that after I bought that Bitcoin, he wanted to create an accelerator just focused on Bitcoin,” Draper said.
On the other hand, Tim Draper’s father, Bill Draper, has been skeptical of crypto anyway. “My dad wasn’t enthusiastic about it at all,” Draper said, adding that he has always advised him to stick with the U.S. dollar.
Follow the full story: How Tim Draper made a fortune investing in Bitcoin | Crypto Stories Ep. 23
