Balaji Srinivasan Net Worth, Crypto and NFT Investments

Balaji Srinivasan is a serial entrepreneur, cryptocurrency advocate, and angel investor. He was the chief technology officer at Coinbase and a general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, where he helped establish their biomedicine and blockchain funds. He is also an advocate for the radical idea of blockchain-based countries, which he explores in his book “The Network State.” Balaji Srinivasan’s net worth likely exceeds $100 million, largely due to his early involvement in crypto and massive startup exits.

Srinivasan, who often goes by just “Balaji,” is considered by many to be a polymath. He is influential in tech, entrepreneurship, and crypto circles and is regularly featured on popular podcasts. He was featured on a list of top Innovators Under 35 by the MIT Technology Review in 2013.

Breaking Down Balaji Srinivasan’s Net Worth

Balaji Srinivasan’s net worth is difficult to estimate because he has not revealed many details of his wealth, but we do know his main income sources. Most of his net worth likely comes from his sales of three businesses. Counsyl was acquired for $375 million, and Coinbase bought Earn.com for a reported $100m. Teleport was also acquired for an undisclosed sum. The proceeds of these deals would’ve been split among a number of stakeholders, but Srinivasan likely would have earned tens of millions of dollars from each sale.

Srinivasan also spent two years as a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, one of the most prominent venture capital firms in the world. According to one source, his salary there would’ve been in the range of half a million to a million dollars. As Coinbase’s chief technology officer, he was rumored to earn around $1 million per year.

Srinivasan has been an angel investor since 2012 – which has also likely had a major impact on his net worth. As an early adopter of cryptocurrency, he is thought to own considerable holdings of bitcoin and other crypto coins. Given the trajectory of bitcoin over the recent decades, this too has likely made a significant contribution to his net worth.

Balaji Srinivasan’s Early Life & Career

Balaji Srinivasan grew up on Long Island. His parents were Indian immigrants and physicians. He has one brother, Ramji Srinivasan. Srinivasan experienced race-based bullying as a child and spent a lot of time playing computer games. He spoke about his origin story at a recent “Startup Grind” conference in San Francisco, which you can watch below.

After high school, he was accepted to Stanford University and started his Freshman year there in 1997. He earned his masters in electrical engineering and, two years later, his masters in chemical engineering. By 2006, he had a PhD in electrical engineering too. Throughout this time he was very interested in genomics and longevity.

After his PhD, Srinivasan started doing research into computational biology. He also started lecturing in the Department of Statistics and Computer Science, teaching topics like cryptocurrency, blockchain, data mining, and statistics.

Counsyl

In 2008, Balaji Srinivasan teamed up with his brother Ramji, a former Wall Street analyst, to start a business, alongside cofounders Eric Evans and Rishi Kacker. Ramji was looking for more meaningful work and Balaji believed that the genome was the next internet, in terms of business opportunity. Both brothers had academic knowledge of genomics but no business experience.

They started Counsyl, a company which offered genetic testing for prospective parents. It looked for over 400 mutations and 100 genetic disorders for just $599 – far cheaper than other providers. By 2013, Counsyl has raised $65 million and was screening 2.5% of all births in the US. The company had an estimated valuation of $1 billion. By 2016, they had raised over $100 million. Counsyl sold to Myriad Genetics for $375 million in 2018.

Balaji Srinivasan was the chief technology officer at Counsyl until 2012. As a result of his work there, he won a Wall Street Journal innovation Aware for Medicine.

Andreessen Horowitz

In December 2013, Srinivasan became the eighth general partner at Andreessen Horowitz (also known as a16z). Founder Marx Andreessen has called Srinivasan “the man who has more good ideas per minute than anyone else in the Bay Area.” During his two years as partner, he helped a16z get into biomedicine and blockchain, leading to the establishment of the a16z Crypto and Bio funds. In 2015, he stepped down as general partner and became a part-time board member.

Teleport

In 2014, while a general partner at a16z, Srinivasan cofounded his second startup, Teleport, along with early Skype executive Sten Tamkivi and software engineer Silver Keskkula, who worked at Skype and Microsoft. Teleport was a “life search” engine for remote workers, helping them find the best places to live and work. For example, you might want to earn a New York salary but live in Bali where the cost of housing and childcare might be lower.

In 2017, Teleport was acquired by MOVE Guides, which is part of Topia, a software that allows businesses to manage a global workforce. Teleport was acquired for an undisclosed amount.

Earn.com

Srinivasan made his mark at a16z by rescuing a failing portfolio company. He helped establish 21.co in early 2013, but he didn’t hold an operational role. The Bitcoin mining company was struggling as operational costs soared and the price of Bitcoin crashed. Competitors failed, and 21.co was drowning in $80m of debt, set to run out of money within a year. In 2017, Srinivasan stepped in as CEO and turned 21.co into Earn.com.

Earn.com allowed users to earn free cryptocurrency by answering emails and completing tasks like online surveys. For example, startups seeking investment could use the service to email high-profile investors and reward them in cryptocurrency for their response. By 2018, the company was profitable, with hundreds of thousands of users. Cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase bought Earn.com for over $120 million in April that year.

Coinbase

When Earn.com was acquired, Srinivasan became the first chief technology officer (CTO) at Coinbase. He stayed in the position for barely more than a year but he made his mark.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Srinivasan oversaw the integration of Earn.com into Coinbase, sourced and closed $1.8 billion in deals, organized the launch of the USDC stablecoin, pitched a $300 million fundraising round, and supervised the buildout of new infrastructure for the addition of new assets to the platform. He left in 2018.

We launched USDC seven years ago.
It started with $25M from our corporate funds.
It's now a $56B asset that generates billions each year.
Here's the launch video: https://t.co/34sCRZncvt pic.twitter.com/g6u7qlDTY8

— Balaji (@balajis) February 27, 2025

Coin Center

In 2014, Srinivasan founded yet another enterprise, this time alongside Jerry Brito and Alex Morcos. Coin Center describes itself as “the leading non-profit focused on the policy issues facing cryptocurrencies.” The organization aims to engage with policymakers on issues like consumer protection and tax policy to influence regulations. For example, Coin Center is fighting the Internal Revenue Service’s attempt to introduce crypto tax reporting rules.

Srinivasan remains a board member at Coin Center as of April 2025.

Angel Investor

Since 2012, Srinivasan has been an angel investor. His investments include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Perplexity, OpenSea, Zcash, Soylent, Cameo, and Superhuman. According to his AngelList profile, his main areas of interest are crypto, blockchain, robotics, genomics, and virtual reality.

Balaji’s Idea Maze

In a paper he wrote at Stanford University, Srinivasan writes about a concept he calls the “idea maze” which describes how entrepreneurs should approach starting a business. Many leaders in Silicon Valley lauded the paper and still consider it required reading.

Ben Horowitz – Silicon Valley thought leader and Andreessen Horowitz cofounder – describes it as follows, “Any idea, there’s tons of stuff wrong with it…it hasn’t bumped into the market and the partners and the competitors and the technology landscape and all the things its going to bump into. And so, as you hit all those things, you have to navigate your way through the maze to the actual product.”

Crypto & Blockchain Advocacy

Srinivasan was an early adopter and vocal advocate for cryptocurrency. He ran the Stanford University Bitcoin Group as a student and even used to set up crypto wallets for Uber drivers during his rides so he could tip them in bitcoin – according to a journalist.

He went on to help guide mainstream venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz towards crypto investments – eventually leading to the establishment of their world-leading crypto fund. As Coinbase CTO, he was a crypto evangelist, driving a positive public message about the industry. And Coin Center, which he cofounded, actively campaigns to create a crypto friendly regulatory environment.

But two events have really cemented his public status as a crypto pioneer: his concept for the “Network State” and the $2 million bet he took and lost.

The Network State

Srinivasan wrote a book called “The Network State,” which was published in 2022. It’s about the radical idea of using blockchain technology to start new countries. The countries he envisions would have internal economies that run on cryptocurrency, meaning they can transcend the borders of normal nation-states.

Srinivasan writes in the book, “As incredible as it may sound, the blockchain is the most important development in history since the advent of writing itself, as it’s a cryptographically verifiable, highly replicated, unfalsifiable, and provably complete digital record of a system.”

He also has a spin-off project called The Network School, which is described as a “frontier community for techno-optimists.” Details about the project are ambiguous, but the website claims that the school hosts talks by leading crypto entrepreneurs like Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum), Haseeb Qureshi (Dragonfly), and Jesse Pollak (Coinbase Base).

Srinivasan writes that “the Network School is for those who understand that Bitcoin succeeds the Federal Reserve, that encryption is the only true protection against unreasonable search and seizure, that AI can deliver better opinions than any Delaware magistrate, and that democracy can be rejuvenated with cryptography.” It is not clear whether this school is profitable.

The $2 Million Bet

The second event that defines Srinivasan as a crypto influencer took place in March 2023. At the time, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies were surging in value as the result of a banking crisis. Srinivasan, then CTO of Coinbase, warned of a risk of hyperinflation saying on X, “Buy Bitcoin now and get your coins off exchanges,” and later adding, “All dollar holders get destroyed.”

An X user with the handle @jdcmedlock tweeted that they’d bet anyone $1 million that the US would not enter hyperinflation. Srinivasan replied “I’ll take that bet” and offered to bet $1 million that Bitcoin would be worth $1 million within 90 days. Bitcoin was worth around $25,000 at the time.

I will take that bet.
You buy 1 BTC.
I will send $1M USD.
This is ~40:1 odds as 1 BTC is worth ~$26k.
The term is 90 days.
All we need is a mutually agreed custodian who will still be there to settle this in the event of digital dollar devaluation.
If someone knows how to do this… https://t.co/hhPr522PQu pic.twitter.com/6Aav9KeJpe

— Balaji (@balajis) March 17, 2023

Unfortunately for Srinivasan, inflation slowed and he ended up settling the bet early. But he claimed in a video on X that the purpose of the bet was to demonstrate to his followers that “there is something wrong in the economy.”

I just burned a million to tell you they're printing trillions. pic.twitter.com/pX5622rjUO

— Balaji (@balajis) May 2, 2023

Some commentators theorized that the bet was a PR stunt or a pump-and-dump scheme (whereby influencers buy up a cryptocurrency, encourage followers to buy, and then dump their holdings), though there isn’t enough evidence to support these theories.

Balaji, Media, & Politics

Balaji Srinivasan is well-known beyond the boardrooms of Silicon Valley. In 2017, for example, he met with then-president-elect Donald Trump to discuss the role of the Federal Drug Agency (FDA) commissioner. Srinivasan had previously argued that the FDA stifled medical innovation with bureaucratic delays. He had the idea to allow patients to give drugs a Yelp-style review, a process that could potential replace or enhance the existing drug trial and approval processes. Ultimately Srinivasan made the shortlist for FDA commissioner, but was not selected for the role.

It’s safety theater.

In the US, FDA waved through opioids & TSA body scanners while boosting drug prices.

They slowed genomics & mobile health apps by regulating as medical devices too.

By jacking up cost, you get less care. That’s intrinsically unsafe. https://t.co/FA8FPjnSK2 pic.twitter.com/0OcbK2Ew4i

— Balaji (@balajis) March 8, 2023

In 2020, New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz accused Srinivasan, in a now deleted Tweet, of trying to destroy her career and harassing her online. Srinivasan said the claim was false and accused Lorenz was overreacting. The interaction led one journalist to describe him as an “antimedia ringleader.”

Balaji Srinivasan’s Crypto & NFT Holdings

Balaji Srinivasan’s cryptocurrency holdings are not public knowledge, but he is known to have invested early in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies. His outspoken comments about the dangers of hyperinflation in the dollar economy suggest that most of his net worth is held in Bitcoin, which has performed well over the years.

Balaji Srinivasan Net Worth: The Verdict

Balaji Srinivasan used his expertise and entrepreneurial skills to help cofound three incredibly successful businesses that sold for hundreds of millions of dollars each. He has also held positions with million-dollar salaries and has been an angel investor with a major influence in the worlds of tech, blockchain, and health. However, his biggest source of income may actually be his early investment in cryptocurrency. His exact net worth is unknown, but it is likely in the realm of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Given his stellar reputation as “the man who has more good ideas per minute than anyone else in the Bay Area,” Balaji Srinivasan is expected to grow his net wealth in years to come.

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