Bitcoin

Macro Trader Mike Novogratz Says Wall Street Nearing Bitcoin Adoption

William Peaster | Nov 14, 2017 | 05:00

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Former hedge fund manager turned cryptocurrency investor Mike Novogratz just said he believes institutional investors are only weeks away from adopting Bitcoin and Ethereum en masse. Novogratz also said this Wall Street “migration” will cause crypto prices to surge. 

Fortress Investment Group alumni Mike Novogratz once again offered his bullish opinions on the crypto space in new comments from the first day of New York’s Reuters Global 2018 Investment Outlook Summit.

“The institutionalization of this space is coming,” Novogratz said. “It’s coming pretty quick.”

Novogratz pointed to developments like CME Group’s launch of Bitcoin futures in Q4 2017 and CBOE president Chris Concannon’s recent projection of bringing Bitcoin ETFs “to market” as signs that Wall Street and institutional powerhouses the world over are about to start investing in the top cryptocurrencies – both indirectly and directly – like never before.

Novogratz noted that investing in these crypto futures and ETFs will become exceedingly easy for institutional investors, which likely means a tsunami of institutional funds will soon begin pouring into the space.

Consider, for example, that the CME is the largest regulated foreign currency exchange in the world – their BTC futures will give thousands of institutional clients the ability to join the Bitcoin boom.

Per Novogratz:

“When it’s that easy [for institutions to invest], the price of bitcoin or ethereum is going to go much higher. And that is a lot closer than people think.”

Big money is coming to bitcoin: ex-Fortress executive Novogratz https://t.co/ZDcuA6mv9z pic.twitter.com/R1T92W7LvA

— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) November 14, 2017

Novogratz’s estimate is that it will take six months for critical mass to be reached insofar as institutional adoption goes.

The macro hedge fund maestro also noted how these cryptocurrency futures and ETFs will be inherently attractive to more conservative-minded investment firms, in that they’ll provide a safer, less volatile outlet for capitalizing on the ever-surging crypto community.

Wall Street to Pave the Way to Novogratz’s $10k BTC Projection?

Back in October, Novogratz – who famously picked up 500,000 ether back when they were still $1.00 each – appeared on CNBC’s Fast Money program and estimated the price of bitcoin would hit $10,000 by August 2018.

That would be an astounding, unprecedented price point for the current #1 cryptocurrency, but after Bitcoin toppled multiple all-time price highs in October 2017 alone, hitting $10k per coin within the next few months is clearly reasonable.

And what makes this $10k price point seem more like an eventuality than a possibility are developments like the CME’s coming Bitcoin futures and the recent Wall Street Journal report that Goldman Sachs is considering launching a Bitcoin trading operation of its own.

As Novogratz aptly put it in his Fast Money interview:

“I can hear the herd coming.”

Just how high could #bitcoin go? Hedge fund legend @novogratz says $BTC will soar to over $10K in the next 6 to 10 months pic.twitter.com/b3ZKS1hXau

— CNBC's Fast Money (@CNBCFastMoney) October 10, 2017

And the herd is Wall Street. And they’ve got trillions of dollars they can migrate into the crypto space in the years ahead.

For his part, Novogratz is personally banking on the space continuing to explode, too, as the founder of Galaxy Investment Partners – an operation explicitly dedicated to cryptocurrency projects.

And soon enough, his firm will be able to buy Bitcoin futures and ETFs just like everyone else.

Do you think Novogratz is spot on? Are these institutional investors going to power cryptocurrencies to new heights? Be sure to sound off in the comments below!

Images courtesy of Rick Wilking / Reuters