Billionaire hedge fund investor Mike Novogratz, who made it into the Forbes billionaire list in 2008, revealed that he holds 10 percent of his net worth in Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Novogratz is considered as one of the early investors of Bitcoin and Ethereum. He first purchased Bitcoin in 2013, when the digital currency was worth around $50. The Bitcoin price declined throughout 2013 due to the Mt. Gox fiasco which led to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in user funds.
Early holder
Early investors of both Bitcoin and Ethereum are respected in the cryptocurrency community because they hardly sell their savings in Bitcoin despite extreme volatility and fluctuation at times. In 2013 for instance, Bitcoin price remained at one of its lowest points for 11 straight months, until it started to surge in November.
Since his investment in 2013, Bitcoin price increased from around $50 to $1,270. In fact, it is close to reaching its all-time high price at $1,277, which was established minutes before the decision of the US Securities and Exchange Commission to decline the Winklevoss Twins’ Bitcoin ETF proposal.
At the Harvard Business School Club of New York Blockchain conference, Novogratz explained that his decision to invest 10 percent of his life savings into Bitcoin and Ether is the best investment of his life so far.
ICO purchase
Novogratz also purchased Ethereum’s Ether during its ICO, when the token was worth around $1. Currently, Ethereum is trading at $49, which translates to a 49x return for Novogratz. At the event, Novogratz explained that a meeting with Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin and a prominent CEO allowed him to understand the true potential of Ethereum and its applicability across various industries.
As Cointelegraph reported previously, the Ethereum network and the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance platform are being utilized by some of the largest multi-billion dollar banks and corporations around the world, including the $92 bln firm BHP Billiton.
Novogratz sees a bright future in the development of Ethereum and its evolution as a smart contract-based Blockchain platform for large-scale commercial businesses and corporations.
More successful multi-billion dollar investors in crypto
Tim Draper, the multi-billionaire angel investor of prominent companies including Uber and Skype, has also experienced a huge success in his Bitcoin investment. So far, his investment in Bitcoin alone earned Draper over $16 mln in profit. Apart from his direct investment in Bitcoin, he is a major investor in regional Bitcoin exchanges such as Coinplug and Blockchain startups such as Factom.
One common link between successful investors like Draper and Novogratz is their firm belief in the long-term success of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum. Novogratz, in particular, held onto his savings in Bitcoin throughout highly volatile periods when Bitcoin price declined by up to 30 percent in a period of weeks.
However, Novogratz noted that the crypto space will likely have a bubble that would be exploited in the near future. Cryptocurrencies or altcoins without clear scalability plans and long-term roadmaps are likely to fail.