Galaxy Digital chief whip Michael Novogratz issued another of his trademark price predictions for Bitcoin, telling CNBC Squawk Box Wednesday he thinks the price of the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization will never again drop below $5,000.
Seeing BTC currently stuck in the $10,000-14,000 range, the billionaire ex-hedge fund manager will get “nervous” if the coin dips below $8500—and “real nervous” if prices slide below $6000.
Will #btc ever go back to $5K? “I don’t think so. I think if it goes below $8,500 I’ll get nervous. If it goes below $6,000 I’ll get real nervous,” says @Novogratz pic.twitter.com/oWMdGTtZYU
— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) August 1, 2019
The former manager of Fortress Investment Group’s multi-billion-dollar macro fund and an ex-Goldman Sachs partner, Novogratz in recent years has become something of a regular feature as one of Wall Street’s loudest authorities on Bitcoin since, in September 2017, correctly predicting the coin would surpass $10,000. But, not all his price predictions have fared as well.
For one, judging by the performance of Galaxy Digital in 2018, Novogratz’s widely reported September 2018 call for a bottom at $6,200 seemed to backfire, dramatically.
This is the BGCI chart…I think we put in a low yesterday. retouched the highs of late last year and the point of acceleration that led to the massive rally/bubble… markets like to retrace to the breakout..we retraced the whole of the bubble. #callingabottom pic.twitter.com/EasTBYgjSj
— Michael Novogratz (@novogratz) September 13, 2018
According to a financial disclosure made by the Canada-based crypto fund, Galaxy Digital lost $272.7 million in 2018—$101.4 million of that from selling cryptocurrencies at a loss, and $75.5 million lost on paper by holding crypto investments in the red.
The firm’s stock (ticker: GLXY) closed the year down 65 percent from its all-time-high of CAD$2.98, having lost 55 percent of its value in November alone.
Galaxy recovers, Novogratz looks to institutional onramps to drive Bitcoin higher
The significant losses Novogratz’s firm endured last year would appear to have been nursed by the recent performance of Bitcoin, however, with the fund reporting a net income of $13 million in Q1 2019, and GLXY having stabilized around CAD$2 per share. More generous profits will lie ahead for Galaxy Digital if Novogratz’s longer-term predictions on Bitcoin are accurate.
Speaking later on Squawk Box, Novogratz reiterated his long-held belief that institutional sponsorship would drive Bitcoin prices to record highs—this time lauding Facebook’s cryptocurrency project, Libra, as an event that could eventually see the cryptocurrency breach $1 million.
One thing that Libra did—when you saw Mastercard, and Visa, and PayPal, and Uber, all sign up—it credentialized crypto. And so every institutional player is looking how do they get their foothold in. And as those guys move in, first to Bitcoin, and then to broader crypto, you know that’s what drives this next price move.
