Chamath Palihapitiya Predicts 7.3 Million Bitcoin Wallet Downloads in 2014

Former Facebook and AOL executive Chamath Palihapitiya tweeted about about a significant slowdown in wallet growth rate for 2014.

AccessTimeIconApr 14, 2014 at 9:32 a.m. UTC
Updated Sep 11, 2021 at 10:39 a.m. UTC
10 Years of Decentralizing the Future
May 29-31, 2024 - Austin, TexasThe biggest and most established global hub for everything crypto, blockchain and Web3.Register Now

Former Facebook and AOL executive Chamath Palihapitiya has updated his projection on wallet downloads in 2014.

In January, Palihapitiya, who is one of the largest individual owners of bitcoin, had predicted 11.5 million wallet downloads, but after the bitcoin price stabilised below $500 in the first quarter of the year, he has readjusted his forecast to 7.3 million.

He shared this information via a tweet last night:

— Chamath Palihapitiya (@chamath) April 14, 2014

The data is based on Coinbase, Blockchain and MultiBit wallets, all three of which passed their one-millionth-download milestone at the start of this year: Blockchain.info at the beginning of 2014, Coinbase in February and MultiBit just last month.

On March 29th, there were 3.9 million wallet downloads for the year, as per the Source+Capital graph tweeted out by Palihapitiya.

is a Palo Alto-based VC fund made up of philanthropists and technologists. Palihapitiya is its founder and managing director, prior to which he was the longest tenured member of Facebook’s senior executive team and held leading roles at The Mayfield Fund, AIM and ICQ, and Winamp.

Born in Sri Lanka and raised in Canada, Palihapitiya is also the owner of Golden State Warriors NBA team, which ‘maybe’ accepting bitcoin soon.

One of the responses following Palihapitiya tweets questioned what was driving the significant slowdown in wallet growth rate.

His response was:

— Chamath Palihapitiya (@chamath) April 14, 2014

Vinny Lingham, CEO of Gyft, also pointed out that number of wallets is not the same as number of users. In a separate post, he argued that consumer adoption was slower than merchant adoption.

Palihapitiya responded to that saying:

— Chamath Palihapitiya (@chamath) April 14, 2014

Disclosure

Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information has been updated.

CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. In November 2023, CoinDesk was acquired by the Bullish group, owner of Bullish, a regulated, digital assets exchange. The Bullish group is majority-owned by Block.one; both companies have interests in a variety of blockchain and digital asset businesses and significant holdings of digital assets, including bitcoin. CoinDesk operates as an independent subsidiary with an editorial committee to protect journalistic independence. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive options in the Bullish group as part of their compensation.


Learn more about Consensus 2024, CoinDesk's longest-running and most influential event that brings together all sides of crypto, blockchain and Web3. Head to consensus.coindesk.com to register and buy your pass now.