Venture capitalist and founding partner of Draper Associates, Tim Draper, says altcoins could ultimately make Bitcoin better by acting as testing grounds for upgrades.
During an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Monday, Draper said there will also be “many other cryptocurrencies,” created over time, which will help grow Bitcoin’s (BTC) dominance.
“Competition is good for the world, but as a percentage of all cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, with the first boom, they had a 40% market share, with the next boom, they had 50% market share, and now the market share is running around 61 to 62%,” he said.
Adding that over time, “the dominant supplier builds the strongest network,” which results in developers programming for the “dominant supplier.”
Microsoft was the Bitcoin of Web2
A similar situation played out with Microsoft, Draper said, because most developers were building on it when it first started out. However, some applications were created elsewhere and eventually ported.
Microsoft is considered one of the top tech giants in the world, with its Windows operating system taking up over 71% of the market share.
“Well, the same thing is happening now with Bitcoin. All of these smaller cryptocurrencies are experimenting and doing interesting things and all of the great engineers are porting those to Bitcoin and so there is a gravitational pull toward Bitcoin,” he said.
“There are other currencies that will come up as flashes in the pan but I think overall, we’re in a major trend toward Bitcoin.”
However, data from Electric Capital currently paints a different picture.
Their latest developer report estimates there are only 2,583 total developers on Bitcoin — a fraction of the total developers on the EVM stack (12,931) and Ethereum (9,094).
Bitcoin is a hedge against bad government spending: Draper
Draper also reiterated his stance that Bitcoin is a hedge against bad governance and out-of-control government spending.
Draper said government spending has become “uncontrolled,” with the spending as a percentage of gross domestic product going on a “rapid tear over the last hundred years,” with no sign of “slowing down.”
The United States national debt has continued to grow yearly, with the Treasury Department estimating that in the last 100 years, debt has grown from $395 billion in 1924 to over $37.2 trillion in 2025.
“You’re only hedge against that kind of government spending is Bitcoin, unless you want to hold gold, which is like holding onto shells. It’s like being prehistoric in your thinking about the economy,” Draper said.
“Bitcoin is your alternative that allows you to deal with the major changes that are happening in government policies over time.”
The $250,000 price prediction could still be on the table
Draper has predicted that Bitcoin would reach $250,000 and eventually make the US dollar extinct, though he acknowledged that it hasn’t come true yet.
Related: Harvard economist admits he was wrong about Bitcoin crashing to $100
“I’ve been predicting $250,000 for a Bitcoin for a long time. It turns out I haven’t been right yet, but we’ve gotten halfway there. So that’s very exciting,” he said.
Draper, however, previously predicted Bitcoin would reach $10,000, which it did in 2017, and he told Cointelegraph in 2023 that he only made a fresh prediction of $250,000 by the end of 2022 because he felt pressure to have another crack after he nailed his first price guess.
Bitcoin hit a new all-time high of $124,450 on Aug. 14, but has since retreated 11.8% to trade at around $109,144, according to CoinGecko.
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