For the past nine months, the cryptocurrency market has seen steady declines, forcing most altcoin prices down 80 percent or more from their all-time highs. Even bitcoin, “digital gold,” has shed 68 percent from its mid-December peak. However, the wind, says billionaire Galaxy Digital founder Mike Novogratz, is about to shift.
Writing on Twitter, Novogratz, a former principal at Fortress Investment Group, said that he believes the market put in a low on Wednesday, when a widespread sell-off forced the cryptocurrency market cap down to about $186 billion, marking a new low for 2018.
This is the BGCI chart…I think we put in a low yesterday. retouched the highs of late last year and the point of acceleration that led to the massive rally/bubble… markets like to retrace to the breakout..we retraced the whole of the bubble. #callingabottom pic.twitter.com/EasTBYgjSj
— Michael Novogratz (@novogratz) September 13, 2018
Citing data from Galaxy Digital’s crypto price index, he said that the market had “retouched the highs of late last year and the point of acceleration that led to the massive rally/bubble,” adding that “markets like to retrace the breakout” and we “retraced the whole of the bubble.”
On Friday, the cryptocurrency market traded down, with most large-cap altcoins falling by around four percent. Nevertheless, the overall market cap sits at $198 billion, comfortably above the year-to-date low it set earlier in the week.
As CCN reported, several other high-profile cryptocurrency analysts have attempted to call the bottom in recent months, only to see bitcoin and its peers dip further into the red. Cryptocurrency hedge fund Pantera Capital said in April that the market had found a floor, while Digital Currency Group founder Barry Silbert said in July that he believed the bottom was in.
Also in July, Novogratz said that he believes the cryptocurrency market cap would reach $800 billion — roughly matching the all-time high it hit in January — within 12 months. He predicated this forecast on the assumption that mainstream regulated custodians will begin storing cryptoassets for institutions, and reports from insiders at banks such as Goldman Sachs suggest that this will happen sooner rather than later.
Others, though, predict that the rally could take a little while longer and may not extend comprehensively across the market. Earlier this week, for instance, Sonny Singh, chief commercial officer of crypto payment processor BitPay, said that he expects bitcoin to rebound in 2019 but thinks that most altcoins are “never coming back.”
Featured Image from Bloomberg/YouTube
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