Bitcoin Investors Get ‘Too Excited’ Regarding Price Drops, Says Novogratz

The billionaire crypto giant commented on the rollercoaster of hype from investors  over bitcoin prices, along with other industry trends. 

In an interview with Bloomberg, crypto bull Mike Novogratz gave his take on the hype around bitcoin prices. He said investors get, “too excited,” like with the latest bitcoin plunge. Yesterday the crypto market crashed when bitcoin hit a low around $42,800.

In his view, investors over-picked the market. An eight-week run encouraged investors from all niches of the crypto industry, though ultimately led to the drop. Despite remarking on hype-happy investors, Novogratz stands firm behind bitcoin as a long term store of value. 

The crypto mogul pointed out major investments in the industry over the past few months alone. Visa Inc.’s foray into the NFT space with their $150,000 CryptoPunk purchase. Commerce-giants Amazon and Walmart’s  hunt for crypto and blockchain experts. All of these are big signs of development in the crypto space. 

“There’s been a giant realization that crypto is not just Bitcoin being bought as a hedge against bad monetary and fiscal policy. More importantly, it’s the web 3.0,” Novogratz said. He likened the space to the early days of the internet.  “No investor wants to miss the next internet. I think we just got too excited and this was a little air being popped out of the balloon.”

Bitcoin becomes official

These comments also come after the rollout of El Salvador’s bitcoin adoption as a national currency. The roll came with major technical glitches and a lead up of skeptical protesters. However, Novogratz said such rocky starts always smooth out with time. 

“I guess the real question is, come back in six weeks or 12 weeks and let’s talk about how it’s working for the people of El Salvador and for the system itself,” he said. “Doing things at scale is not easy. I have a lot of faith that they will get this right.”

Ahead of the adoption, the  El Salvadoran government said it bought 400 bitcoins in preparation. However, in terms of wider, global adoption of bitcoin as a national tender, he was more hesitant. “Governments are going to be very, very protective of their national currencies.”

According to Novogratz in the interview, remittances makeup close to 20% of El Salvador’s GDP. Now, some of which are in bitcoin. 

Beyond the hype, he said the future of the digital currency king is clear. “There are enough institutions that have said they believe it’s a store of value.”