On June 27, billionaire investor and Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz said in an interview with CNBC that he wished he had sold more when the bitcoin price achieved a new 2019 high at $13,800.
After reaching its yearly high, the bitcoin price dropped by around 30 percent against the U.S. dollar, experiencing an expected pullback subsequent to a 230 percent year-to-date gain.
Novogratz clarifies, still bullish on bitcoin
On social media, Novogratz explained that reports about him hoping to have sold more when bitcoin spiked to its yearly high were taken out of context.
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On CNBC, Novogratz said that he wished to have sold more of his bitcoin holdings before the asset dropped 30 percent overnight but emphasized that on a macro scale, he remains optimistic on the medium to long term trend of the dominant crypto asset.
“I have to say taken out of context some or I wasn’t clear enough. Of course you would rather have sold something if you could buy it down 30 percent the next day. I do think we consolidate 10-14k before next move higher. I am still very bullish BTC,” said Novogratz.
While many traders and investors generally expect bitcoin to consolidate in the $10,000 to $14,000 range due to its significant gain in recent weeks, the asset has been on a strong upside trend which have made traders reluctant towards aggressively betting against bitcoin.
Scott Melker, trader at TexasWest capital, said:
We are in a bull market. In bull markets you buy the dips. Did you buy the dip? I did, at $10,488.
Currently, investors are exploring possible positive catalysts that could fuel the near to medium term trend of the crypto market.
Bitcoin is already up more than 200 percent even with the 18 percent drop from $13,800. The valuation of the crypto market has increased by nearly $100 billion in the past month due to the recovery of bitcoin.
Analysts foresee the introduction of new trading venues, an increase in volume, and the rise in inflow of capital from institutions as key catalysts of the asset.
If the volume of the bitcoin market holds throughout 2019 as it approaches its block reward halving in 2020, traders anticipate the momentum of the asset to be sustained.
As of June 29, the “Real 10” volume of bitcoin hovers at around $4.8 billion, up by more than ten-fold since March. The Real 10 volume refers to volume from ten exchanges considered to have real volume by Bitwise Asset Management.
With CME bitcoin futures market and BitMEX recording daily volumes of over $1 billion and $10 billion respectively on high-demand days, the market is seeing volumes at the level of 2018.
Will Libra continue to operate as a catalyst?
When the Libra Association released the whitepaper for Libra, a crypto asset created by major conglomerates in the likes of Visa and Mastercard, some industry executives including DCG CEO Barry Silbert said that it would act as a catalyst for the rest of the market.
However, with several key regions such as Russia and France showing reluctance to legalize the usage of Libra, investors have started to doubt the long term survivability of the asset.
Novogratz said that he believes regulators will allow Libra as a means to compete against China and Alibaba’s Alipay.
“This is why I believe the regulators will allow libra. They don’t want the Chinese to dominate global payments. And at least the blockchain piece of this gives some privacy vs all of Alipay’s payments going to the Chinese government clearing house,” Novogratz said.
Click here for a real-time bitcoin price chart.