The Simpsons’ surprising crypto predictions: fact or fiction?
Explore the legendary series’ predictions in the crypto world. Are they onto something big or just dreaming?
The cult series The Simpsons has long become a “visionary” series. Episodes often feature various predictions that eventually come true.
The Simpsons’ writing team has predicted numerous world events, including Disney’s purchase of Fox and the presidency of Donald Trump. The topic of cryptocurrencies has not escaped the attention of the series’ creators. Let’s explore what The Simpsons has to say about cryptocurrency and whether we can trust their predictions.
The Simpsons predicted the emergence of cryptocurrencies
In Episode 17 of Season 8, which first aired on March 2, 1997 — more than ten years before the advent of Bitcoin — the creators of the cartoon first introduced a place called the Crypto Barn. On the store, you can find various inscriptions, “place for codes”, “secret code,” and “many codes”.
Episode 13 of Season 31 also includes an eighty-second educational video that explains how blockchain and cryptocurrencies work to Lisa Simpson.
The animated distributed ledger dances and sings a song, where it says that cryptocurrency is very convenient, allowing you to send money from Shanghai to Grenada.
The Simpsons predict the future of XRP cryptocurrency
One episode of America’s longest-running animated series predicted that the value of the XRP coin would be just under $600. However, this screenshot turned out to be fake.
At the time of writing, XRP is trading at $0.6927, and during its heyday, its value reached $3.84. If we think about it, putting aside emotions, we are more likely to come to the conclusion that the probability of the coin reaching $589 is quite small, at least in the foreseeable future.
There were other episodes that intrigued XRP enthusiasts. In one scene, Homer’s manager is handed a card that looks exactly like modern credit or Visa cards. The card comes in a fancy box, which some enthusiasts interpret as a prediction that digital assets like XRP will eventually have their own credit cards.
The NFT episode
On Nov. 5th, the first chapter, entitled “Wild Barts Can’t Be Token,” was released. The series references popular NFT collections such as Bored Ape Yacht Club and Beeple.
Various popular NFT collections appear throughout the series. Non-fungible token collector Noah Bolanowski noted that the authors saluted digital art. At the same time, profile picture (PFP) collections in The Simpsons were depicted “like the bottom of a blockchain,” the expert commented.
Marge’s journey through the blockchain goes through three levels:
- The first one features exhibits of digital art, including works by NFT artists Beeple and XCOPYART.
- In the second, the heroine encounters cats from the Cryptokittens collection.
- On the third, at the very bottom, she meets digital avatars.
The episode also features the mysterious figure of Satoshi Nakamoto, who is holding Bitcoin (BTC) in his hand.
The endless rise in the price of Bitcoin
In another episode, the show’s creators predicted an infinite rise in the price of Bitcoin.
In one of the frames, a stock ticker displays quotes with an infinity sign next to Bitcoin.
Also, in the cartoon, stock quotes for the video game retailer GameStop (GME) are featured. The company’s stock price increases by $1 trillion and immediately falls by $2 trillion. This references the real-life “pump” of GameStop shares driven by the WallStreetBets movement on Reddit.
Since the episode’s release on April 11, 2021, the price of Bitcoin is still far from infinite. Then, the price of the first cryptocurrency was about $60,400. Now, BTC has lost about 40% of this value, trading at $36,600 at the time of writing.
It should be noted that this is not the first time Bitcoin has been mentioned in the series. Back in 2013, in one of the episodes, Krusty the Clown complained that he had lost all his money on Bitcoins. In the seventh episode of season 25, a billboard appeared on which one of the school bullies offered to transfer his lunch money to him in Bitcoins.
Could the Simpsons’ predictions come true?
Many of the Simpsons’ predictions came true in one form or another. No other project has such a number of “hits,” from the first Apple Watch to the unknown Chinese virus that isolated the entire population of the planet in their homes.
However, when it comes to cryptocurrency, the predictions from the iconic series’ characters appear overly optimistic. It remains to be hoped for the crypto community that the show’s creators still have the gift of foresight and that their forecasts for XRP and Bitcoin growth will ultimately prove accurate.
