Peter Thiel Says His ‘Biggest Mistake of the Decade Was Getting Too Late and Too Little Into Bitcoin’

During a discussion published on March 12, 2022, the billionaire entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Peter Thiel discussed how he built Paypal with fellow co-founders Max Levchin, David Sacks, and Luke Nosek. Toward the end of the hour-long conversation, the topic quickly turned to cryptocurrencies and Thiel stressed that his “biggest mistake” during the last ten years “was getting too late and too little into bitcoin.”

Paypal Co-Founder Peter Thiel Reveals the Biggest Mistake He’s Made in the Last Decade

Last week, the new book dubbed “The Founders” written by Jimmy Soni was discussed at great length during a panel conversation with the co-founders of Paypal. The book called “The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley,” was published last month and the story gives an account of Paypal’s origins.

The callin.com broadcast published on March 12, features the Paypal co-founders Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, David Sacks, and Luke Nosek. While most of the conversation touches on the Paypal origins topic, at the 55:30 mark, the discussion turned to cryptocurrencies. The host of the discussion managed to squeeze in one more question, as he said “it would not be a tech conversation without a little bit of wild-eyed forward-looking statements.”

The discussion host explained that amid Paypal’s rise, a “whole crypto thing going on” and he highlighted how Peter Thiel has “written and spoken a lot about it.” When asked what the group thinks about “payment systems now and crypto,” Thiel responded. The Paypal co-founder remarked:

The biggest mistake I made in the last decade was getting too late and too little into bitcoin.

While Thiel Was Super Interested in Bitcoin, He ‘Was Somehow Programmed to Not to See It’

Thiel explained further: “You know, we invested in 2014 in Founders Fund and did reasonably well, but it was on my radar in 2010 and 2011 — We had seen all these crazy cryptocurrency people, at the time at Paypal, it was one of the things that I was actually super interested in and it motivated me, but none of the models quite worked.” Thiel further added:

With bitcoin, I was somehow programmed to not to see it as much as I should have.

The Paypal co-founder’s statements last week are similar to the declarations he made in October. Speaking at a cryptocurrency event in Miami last year, Thiel told participants that he felt like he was “underinvested in [bitcoin].” Speaking further on the benefits of bitcoin in Miami, Thiel stressed that bitcoin was “the canary in the coal mine — It’s the most honest market we have in the country.”