Interview | Bought Bitcoin at $95: Galaxy Digital Founder Entered the Market After Just 15 Minutes of Research

In 2017 and 2018, Galaxy Digital was a prominent investment institution invited to major global blockchain summits. There was much anticipation surrounding its founder Mike Novogratz's bullish predictions on Bitcoin. However, as the cryptocurrency market declined, Galaxy Digital received less attention and even news of significant losses and layoffs emerged. Subsequently, its investments diversified beyond cryptocurrencies.

In 2020, with the resurgence of Bitcoin, Mike Novogratz recently revealed in an interview how he entered the industry and shared his thoughts on the current state of the crypto market.

Helicopter Pilot to Alternative Investments in 11 Years

"How did you first come to know about Bitcoin?" the host asked Mike Novogratz.

Mike Novogratz, originally a military helicopter pilot, served in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) during college and started his career in investments at Goldman Sachs, where he spent 11 years. He later joined Fortress Investment Group as the Chief Investment Officer, managing a $9 billion macro fund, accumulating wealth rapidly through alternative investments.

He mentioned that managing a macro fund requires keeping a close eye on global political and economic dynamics. One day, a friend called him to ask about Bitcoin. At that time, Novogratz knew nothing about Bitcoin. After spending 15 minutes researching, he simply thought of it as a technology that libertarians would appreciate.

Novogratz said, "It was in 2012, during the European debt crisis, and many Chinese were buying Bitcoin, so I thought it would go even higher." He made his first Bitcoin purchase at $95. He admitted that it was a speculative move.

Large Bitcoin Purchase and Early Ethereum Investor

Shortly after, he, along with Pantera Capital's CEO Dan Morehead and Fortress's Principal Peter Briger, each bought 30,000 Bitcoins. Novogratz bought an additional one, totaling 30,001, because he couldn't lose. He gained attention when he publicly predicted that Bitcoin would rise from hundreds to thousands, landing him in the Financial Times.

Although he once considered selling his Bitcoin after it had surged tenfold, he ultimately did not, as his friends strongly advised against it.

Later, he met with Joseph Lubin, an early contributor to Ethereum, who was his college roommate at the time Lubin had just founded ConsenSys. Seeing what Lubin was working on made Novogratz realize that people in this field were genuinely passionate about changing many things. He expressed interest in investing in ConsenSys and decided to wait until the launch of Ether.

At the time, Ether was not easily obtainable, priced at around $0.95. He ended up buying 500,000 Ether from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik. They only met once, and Vitalik didn't remember him, but the fact that a Wall Street investor was willing to invest was positive for the community. Eventually, Novogratz bought 50,000 Ether at $0.99 each, which made him take cryptocurrency more seriously.

He mentioned that at his first Ethereum conference, he asked who had bought Ether at under $10, and almost everyone raised their hands. Ether was priced around $70 to $80 at the time. Then he asked who had not sold any, and about two-thirds of the participants kept their hands up. However, the next day during the conference, Ether rose to $100, prompting Novogratz to sell some, admitting that it was challenging to resist such decisions.

In conclusion, he believed that when people make money in one place, they become increasingly interested in it, which was what led him into this field.

End of Part One