Billionaire bitcoin bull Mike Novogratz said Wednesday that the cryptocurrency industry will remain in its early days, as he predicted that the wealth it generates will continue to proliferate in the coming years.
“Right now, total cryptographic wealth is about $ 2 trillion, so that’s half of the 1% of all wealth,” Novogratz told CNBC’s “Squawk Box”. “If you don’t think it could be 2% to 3% in the next two or three years, you won’t be paying attention to trends.”
According to an October Credit Suisse report, global wealth is estimated at around $ 400 trillion.
According to data collected by CoinMarketCap.com, the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies is just over $ 2 trillion as of Wednesday. Bitcoin, which was quoted above $ 63,000 per currency on Wednesday, is responsible for more than half the market value of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin has been in tears since the fall, with a price below $ 11,000 as recently as October.
“The amount of growth we will see in our space is amazing. We have just started,” said Novogratz, founder and CEO of Galaxy Digital, a financial services company focused on cryptography. Galaxy recently presented a bitcoin ETF to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Novogratz entered the crypto world after stopping at well-known and traditional Wall Street companies: he is a former Goldman Sachs trader and fund manager for the Fortress Investment Group.
The rise in digital assets has also been kind to investors who have started out in traditional finance, according to Meltem Demirors, CoinShares ’strategy director and longtime crypto believer.
“That’s good for me: Bitcoin has created a lot of wealth for people who weren’t part of the traditional financial system, they weren’t money managers,” he said in an interview Tuesday in Squawk Box.
Novogratz’s comments came ahead on Wednesday of Coinbase’s hugely successful debut in the market, which is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States. Bitcoin set a new record of nearly $ 65,000 earlier in the day. Ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market value, also came together.
Novogratz said he was not too worried about the way Coinbase shares were traded during its Nasdaq debut. The shares opened at $ 381 per share, well ahead of the $ 250 reference price.
“Let’s not lose sight of the big picture: it’s like Netscape’s time for the cryptocurrency economy. Remember that Netscape in 1995, four years before we had this crazy frenzy, basically marked the beginning of the Internet age “Novogratz said.
“This is a really important day for the whole crypto world. That’s saying, it’s an asset class and it’s an asset class that’s been left out,” he added. “And so, listen, it’s a little irrelevant where Coinbase is listed today.”