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Bitcoin’s Price Has Bottomed And A Rally Looms, Says Crypto Exec Mike Novogratz

By Samantha Chang
Published on: 05:47 PST, Sep 14, 2018

Mike Novogratz, the founder and CEO of cryptocurrency investment firm Galaxy Digital Capital Management, believes prices for virtual currencies like bitcoin, ether, and Monero have bottomed out and are poised to rebound soon.

Novogratz made the prediction on Twitter, where he pointed to activity on the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index (BGCI), which measures the performance of the largest cryptocurrencies traded in U.S. dollars.

Novogratz said it appears the market hit a bottom on September 12, saying the chart patterns look similar to what happened right before there was a rally in late-2017.

Mike Novogratz Sees Big Year-End Rally Ahead

“I think we put in a low yesterday,” Novogratz tweeted on September 13. “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.”

Novogratz, who was once a hedge fund manager and partner with investment bank Goldman Sachs, is now an avowed bitcoin evangelist who’s one of the richest people in crypto.

In February 2018, Forbes magazine released its first-ever list of cryptocurrency billionaires. And Mike Novogratz — with an estimated net worth of $700 million to $1 billion — landed at No. 10 in the rankings, as the Inquisitr previously reported.

Novogratz’s optimistic outlook for bitcoin follows a dismal summer for cryptocurrencies, whose prices plummeted below expectations following a meteoric spike in 2017.

Financial experts and billionaire business moguls like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Tim Draper, and Jack Dorsey are keenly divided on whether cryptocurrencies are viable investment vehicles or are merely flashes in the pan that will disappear as quickly as they exploded.

Study: Bitcoin Prices Were Artificially Inflated

In June 2018, University of Texas finance professor John Griffin published a report positing that bitcoin’s spectacular price spikes in 2017 were fueled by market manipulation and not by authentic investor enthusiasm.

In a 66-page research paper entitled Is Bitcoin Really Un-Tethered?, Griffin said at least 50 percent of the increase in bitcoin prices in 2017 was manipulated using tether, another digital currency pegged to the U.S. dollar.

Griffin, who specializes in spotting financial fraud, said evidence suggests there was coordinated price manipulation designed to keep bitcoin prices artificially high.

Griffin said tether was used numerous times to buy bitcoin on the crypto platform Bitfinex after its price slipped, as the Inquisitr reported. Griffin said the alleged market manipulation also artificially inflated the prices of other cryptocurrencies.

As a result of the ongoing erratic price movements for bitcoin and other top digital currencies, the U.S. Department of Justice launched a criminal investigation into bitcoin price manipulation in May 2018.

Cryptocurrency executives like the Winklevoss twins and Mike Novogratz praised the DOJ probe, saying regulatory scrutiny will help legitimize the virtual currency market by weeding out scam artists and bad actors.

“Weeding out the bad actors is a good thing, not a bad thing, for the health of the market,” Novogratz said.

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