Former Wall Street mogul and founder of cryptocurrency merchant bank Galaxy Digital Mike Novogratz has started 2019 with a big bet on the future of crypto--and the company that he started.
Mike Novogratz (Reuters)
Novogratz announced that he recently acquired an additional 7.5 million shares in Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd. for CAD 7.42 million (about $5.5 million). According to a report by Bloomberg, the acquisition represented about 2.7 percent of the company’s issued and outstanding ordinary shares, bringing Novogratz’ total ownership of the company’s stocks to about 80 percent.
Looking forward to a great 2019. Happy New Year. https://t.co/cVr5JeDmdI
— Michael Novogratz (@novogratz) January 2, 2019
Novogratz’ (Almost) Undying Optimism
Novogratz’ recent acquisition is the latest signal that he is completely confident in the future of Cryptocurrencies in the face of what has been a horrendous year for the crypto industry.
After the company published a report revealing heavy losses in the first quarter of 2018 this July, Novogratz stated that he was “proud” of the company’s progress in spite of the difficulties it has faced. His optimism stayed strong throughout Q2 and Q3, which brought forth mixed financial results for the company.
For example, an official report on Q2 revealed that the company’s “partners' capital increased $35.0 million to $204.7 million as of June 30, 2018, representing a more than 20% increase during the quarter.” However, during Q3, “the Partnership's net losses for the period were $75.1 million due primarily to a combination of a net realized loss on digital assets of $38.1 million, equity-based compensation of $14.3 million and a one-time goodwill impairment of $6.2 million related to the repositioning of the Advisory Services business and closure of the Partnership's Vancouver office.”
A Wave of Executives Have Left the Company in Recent Months
According to a report by The Block, Galaxy Digital has also seen some upheaval in its executive team as the company has made some strategic moves toward Wall Street. At least five executives have left the company in recent months, leaving behind positions as co-head of trading (David Namdar), managing director of the firm’s advisory business (Michael Maloney), director of finance and tax (Sean Galvin), venture investment team member (Jason Raziano), and president (Richard Tavoso).
Novogratz has also recently made some rather bold predictions for the future of Bitcoin . In early November, he said that he thought it was likely that Bitcoin would rise between $8000-9000 by the end of the year; previously, he had said that Bitcoin would surpass $10,000 by year’s end.
? Ten candles on the cake. 100 billion plus in value. The spark and backbone of a revolution. Happy Birthday $btc. And thank you Satoshi - wherever you are.
— Michael Novogratz (@novogratz) October 31, 2018
Although his original predictions had been revised to show a slightly less optimistic future, Novogratz also said that BTC could surpass $10,000 by the end of Q1 2019. “After [$10,000], we will go back to new highs — to $20,000 or more,” he said.
