Stanford millionaire has a blunt response to 'national bankruptcy'

Stanford millionaire has a blunt response to 'national bankruptcy' originally appeared on TheStreet.

Tech entrepreneur and former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan has commented on the escalating feud between President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk — and the message is clear.

On July 1, Balaji posted on X, stating, "The US is broke," and claimed there is "real debt" in excess of $175 trillion, adding that America is in such dire straits that it must deal with “national bankruptcy."

Supporting Musk's recent criticism of Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" — a tax and spending package Musk believes could lead to the collapse of the U.S. dollar — Balaji stated that Elon Musk is 100% correct on the numbers."

He took the discussion a step further, saying there is no fix, only "a writeoff," and that the U.S. will default through inflation and "money printing."

Along with his message, Balaji posted a chart showing the U.S. National debt as a percentage of GDP over the past 150 years. T

he chart clearly showed dramatic increases in debt over the period, with some pronounced increases following the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. The chart projected a straight-line rise from this point forward, with no return to the previous level of debt.

Srinivasan has Stanford degrees, including a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and an MS in Chemical Engineering, proving his technical expertise and interdisciplinary genius. After teaching at Stanford, he co-founded Earn.com, which Coinbase acquired and made him CTO.

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This warning from the Bitcoin maximalist supports Musk's concerns. Earlier Musk shared that Bitcoin could potentially "take over" as a hedge against a weakening dollar.

With two influential figures voicing their concerns, crypto traders are on heightened alert for volatility, especially as monetary policy, national debt, and digital assets collide in the developing political storm.

One Big Beautiful bill makes through Senate

Interestingly, President Trump appears to be unfazed by any criticism.

Vice President JD Vance cast the decisive tie-breaking vote in the Senate to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill. With the Senate split 50-50, Vance cast his tie-breaking vote and pushed the bill through, awaiting approval of one more regulatory hurdle to become a law, or staff, before the July 4 deadline.

At press time, Bitcoin was hovering around $106,000, as per Kraken, slightly down amid fiscal anxiety.

Stanford millionaire has a blunt response to 'national bankruptcy' first appeared on TheStreet on Jul 1, 2025

This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jul 1, 2025, where it first appeared.