How Tim Draper Amassed His Net Worth With Bitcoin Investment

Venture capital investor Tim Draper has racked up a net worth of more than $1 billion, thanks in large part to his early Bitcoin buy-in as well as his lucrative investments in companies like Hotmail, Skype, and SpaceX.

Draper has also courted controversy during his over three-decade career, including with his defense of Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes and his much-opposed efforts to divvy up California into separate states.

According to Forbes, Draper’s net worth as of Nov. 9 was $1.5 billion, which makes him the 2,088th wealthiest person in the world. He also ranked 10th on Forbes’ 2021 Crypto Rich List.

The son and grandson of venture capitalists, Draper is the founding partner of the venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvertson. Among his hundreds of VC deals include investments in Tesla and Theranos, the magazine reports. Cryptocurrency is Draper's leading source of wealth. In fact, Draper purchased 29,656 Bitcoins for $18.7 million, or $632 per coin, after U.S. Marshals confiscated the coins from the Silk Road black market.

In 2013, Draper filed a ballot initiative proposing to split California into six states—South Carolina (with San Diego and Orange County), West California (with Los Angeles and Santa Barbara), Central California (with Bakersfield, Fresno, and Stockton), Silicon Valley (with San Francisco and San Jose), North California (with Sacramento and surroundings) and Jefferson (with Redding and Eureka).

“California as it is is ungovernable,” Draper told ABC News in 2014, after California’s Secretary of State gave him the go-ahead to collect petition signatures. “It is more and more difficult for Sacramento to keep up with the social issues from the various regions of California. With six Californias, people will be closer to their state governments, and states can get a refresh.”

That initiative failed, as did Draper’s later effort to divide California into three states. In the latter case, the California Supreme Court blocked the initiative from appearing on a 2018 ballot, according to Politico.

Draper was one of the first investors in Theranos, the now-disgraced blood-testing company, according to Vanity Fair. He continued to defend Holmes, the former Theranos CEO, even after the SEC accused her of massive fraud. In a 2018 appearance on CNBC—while wearing a Bitcoin-patterned necktie, no less—Draper said that Holmes was a “great icon” who “created an amazing opportunity” and was “bullied into submission” by the press.

John Carreyrou, who reported on Holmes and Theranos in his book Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, rebutted Draper’s comments to Vanity Fair. “In between peddling funny money and performing his clown show on CNBC, Tim Draper should take five minutes to read the S.E.C.’s fraud charges against Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes,” Carreyrou said. “He’d learn a thing or two about how wrong he is.”