Seemingly out of nowhere, the bitcoin price rocketed past the psychologically important $11,000 level this weekend. No doubt traders are getting whiplash from the dramatic swings, as the range-bound BTC then pulled back to just over $10,900.
Not too long ago, Galaxy Digital CEO Michael Novogratz predicted that BTC would be range-bound for a while, suggesting the market would hover between $10,000 and $14,000, which it has. Now he is offering another bit of advice to investors who may be obsessed with checking the market price a million times per day.
A Bitcoin Core contributor who goes by Rhett Cryptography on Twitter posed the question:
“If Bitcoin fell to $100 how many would you buy?”
In a one-two punch, Novogratz took the bait and set the record straight, saying:
If $btc goes to $100, it is game over. IT WON’T. It’s already established itself as a store of value. Stop wasting your time with these tweets and go outside and enjoy the summer. $btc is consolidating before its next move higher. Let it work for you. https://t.co/Q5zAMXlTmw
— Michael Novogratz (@novogratz) July 20, 2019
Hopefully, Rhett took the former hedge fund trader’s advice, as the bitcoin price rose about 5 percent at its best level today. If Rhett is in New York or any other part of the country that’s suffering from this massive heatwave, perhaps that is why he is stuck inside and forced to pontificate by playing the “what if” game. He’s not the first one to put the crypto community to the test.
The last time in recent memory that the media played the “what if” game involved the second biggest cryptocurrency, Ethereum. Incidentally, Novogratz and Ethereum Co-Founder Joseph Lubin were college roommates, and they are cut from the same investing cloth. Last year, when pressed by TD Ameritrade Network about how low the ETH price had to go before it mattered, Lubin said at the time:
“I think it matters to our company, absolutely. If [ETH] goes to $1 that would be a sign that is something is wrong with the Ethereum ecosystem.”
Libra’s Pain is Bitcoin’s Gain
The bitcoin price’s resurgence after a tough week for Facebook’s Libra digital currency is a good sign for the broader crypto market. Industry leaders have suggested that the mainstream attention on Libra would ultimately make bitcoin look even better, and that appears to be the case given that the No. 1 cryptocurrency rallied despite the political backlash that Facebook suffered.
While David Marcus has been the face of Libra, CNBC reported that 26-year-old Morgan Beller, who is Calibra’s head of strategy, was actually the inspiration behind Facebook’s crypto aspirations. Cryptograph researcher Howard Wu is quoted in CNBC as saying:
“Morgan was really the first one, at least to my understanding. She’s done a fantastic job of getting other people in the cryptocurrency communities to get on board with Libra. She has a very outsize value-add from that alone.”
Morgan received high praise from the crypto community, including from the likes of Mike Novogratz.
It’s a young people’s revolution. I’m a Libra fan and a Morgan fan too. https://t.co/XzwRrnRGg1
— Michael Novogratz (@novogratz) July 20, 2019
The bitcoin price is off its highs of the day and is currently hovering at $10,935 on Bitfinex.
