Meet the latest bitcoin millionaire: third generation venture capitalist Tim Draper.
Draper, 56, the founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, was the sole winner of the US government’s auction of some $19 million worth of the cyber currency, Draper announced on Wednesday.
Draper, whose father and grandfather were also VCs, declined to say how much he paid for the bitcoin, except to say that he outbid the others.
“I paid more than the other people in the auction,” he joked at a press conference to discuss his plans for the money.
Draper admitted he’s already spent some of the newly acquired bitcoin to test a new service, called Atlas Card, but plans to use the bulk of the bitcoin to fund Vaurum, a platform to sell the digi-currency to emerging markets such as India, Brazil, Argentina and Turkey.
Vaurum was seeded by Boost, a bitcoin “incubator” firm founded by Draper’s son, Adam.
Draper, who left DFJ last year, said he will be focusing a lot more on bitcoin-related projects because he thinks the virtual currency is going to see explosive growth, especially in emerging countries with unstable governments and currency risks like high inflation.