Billionaire Bitcoin bull Mike Novogratz announced a multi-million dollar foray into the crypto-lending sector, predicting that the total cryptocurrency market capitalization will exceed $800 billion in the next 12 months.
Novogratz, who previously predicted a market cap of $800 billion by the end of 2018, adjusted his bullish stance on the future of the cryptocurrency market in light sluggish market movement in Q2 2018. The Galaxy Digital founder, however, has retained a positive stance on the future of cryptos, spearheading a $52.5 million fundraising round for crypto-based lending platform BlockFi.
Novogratz: Market Has Bottomed
Novogratz outlined his predictions for the future of the crypto market at South Korea’s recent Beyond Blocks conference in an interview with CNBC Africa’s Crypto Trader, anticipating a market growth acceleration from the establishment of strong custodial services and the softening regulatory environment:
“I think we’ve pretty much bottomed. I’m not positive we’ve bottomed but it feels like we have. I do think we’re really building a nice bottom for the nice move up. I think the next move up is going to need custody from a trusted source, it’s going to need a little more regulatory clarity — we won’t take out $10,000 without those two things, because that’s what brings the institutional investors in.”
Novogratz, the CEO of cryptocurrency investment firm Galaxy Investment Partners, highlights the growing rate of adoption, emphasizing the rapid rise in employment opportunities within the blockchain sector and the increasing number of blockchain conference attendees.
Before institutional investors enter the market wholesale, however, Novogratz states that traditional financial organizations will need separate custodial solutions from the cryptocurrency market that will attract risk-averse market players:
“The blockchains themselves are getting built, and they’re getting more industrial — they’re not there yet, but mostly it’s the architecture around what institutional investors need. They need custody with a name that they can trust … the idea of custody is to separate.”
Novogratz Expands into Crypto Loans
While Novogratz predicts a delayed large-scale institutional entrance the billionaire venture capitalist’s investment arm, Galaxy Digital, is not averse to diving head-first into the crypto startup ecosystem. Galaxy Digital is currently leading a $52.5 million fundraising round into BlockFi, a New York-based platform that aims to provide USD loans backed by cryptocurrency collateral.
The BlockFi platform holds client cryptocurrency as collateral and is currently available across 35 US states. Novogratz outlined the importance of the developing crypto lending market in statements released to Business Insider UK earlier this week:
“A robust lending market is the keystone for financial systems and BlockFi’s institutional approach and deep lending expertise were key drivers in our decision to partner with them.”
In addition to the recent investment in BlockFi, Galaxy Digital has invested $15 million into New York-based tokenized asset platform AlphaPoint. Should Novogratz’s predictions for an $800 billion crypto market cap prove true, the Galaxy Digital CEO stands to gain significantly as Novogratz has 10% of his net worth in cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin and Ethereum.
