Fred Wilson, a prominent venture capitalist who runs one of the most influential blogs in Silicon Valley and co-founded Union Square Ventures which has made early investments in companies such as Twitter, had a bold prediction to make in an interview with Bloomberg.
Following a wide ranging discussion which included opinions on Facebook, Twitter, Amazon and Uber, Wilson was asked for his 2017 prediction. From all the topics he could choose, Wilson opted to state:
“The market cap of ethereum will bypass the market cap of bitcoin by the end of the year.”
A very bold statement considering the time frame, but the VC had previously revealed in the interview he was very bullish on this space. Asked to comment on an apparent fall in Silicon Valley start-ups investment index, Wilson stated it might have gone through the cycle and now cooled down a bit, but there are other areas which are frothy right now, he said:
“The whole cryptocurrency sector is frothy right now. I’m very bullish on it long term.” – before adding that the recent price run ups show the digital currencies market seem like a bull market.
In closing the interview, Wilson stated that “crypto tech will emerge as more and more an important piece of the way we use technology both as individuals and as companies and I think that’s one of the mega trends we all need to be aware of.”
The barely two years old digital currency seems to have made a very big impression in some corners of Silicon Valley with the VC’s statement indicating they are betting on eth to become the most prominent platform.
That may suggest their primary focus might have moved away from bitcoin to eth related projects, perhaps ICOs, eth related developments and the wider ethereum ecosystem. So we might see some eth related new company raising big Silicon Valley money.
Because the last time that area focused on this space, the bitcoin start-up 21.co raised some $100 million, with total investment in 2013-14 reaching nearly $1 billion. That cooled down after bitcoin’s scalability debate, but Silicon Valley might be hungry for a second round, now with eth.
Its smart contracts platform is already raising some eyebrows in Silicon Valley because of recent reports that ICOs have raised twice more funding than VC backed companies, but they both have their strength and weaknesses, potentially giving an opening for a hybrid.
Whether Union Square will take a lead in that hybrid by perhaps undertaking due diligence in ICOs and revealing any such investments remains to be seen, but what for now has become clear is that eth is moving into primary spotlight and focus.
