Bitcoin maximalist Mike Novogratz, who once predicted it would hit $500,000 in 2024, would now be “the happiest guy” if it ends the year at $30,000

Mike Novogratz speaks at the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami on April 8, 2022. Eva Marie Uzcategui—Bloomberg via Getty Images

Bitcoin maximalist Mike Novogratz dials it back.

In January 2021, the founder and CEO of crypto investment firm Galaxy Digital said he would get a tattoo to commemorate Bitcoin reaching $500,000, which he expected to happen in 2024. On Wednesday, he said he would be happy if Bitcoin only traded at 30 000 dollars by the end of this year.

Novogratz, an early investor in Bitcoin, made the comments at a Bank of America conference on Wednesday, as Bloomberg reported.

Bitcoin lost nearly 65% ​​of its value during 2022, ending the year at around $16,500. That’s up about 50% year-to-date to $24,792. But that’s well below the peak of nearly $69,000 in November 2021.

“When I look at the price action, when I look at the excitement of the customers calling, FOMO [fear of missing out] build up, it wouldn’t surprise me if we were at $30,000 at the end of the quarter,” he said. “And I would have given both of my shoes for that to be true just six weeks ago. Like if we end the year $30,000, I’ll be the happiest guy.”

At a Bitcoin conference in Miami last April, Novogratz reiterated his prediction that the cryptocurrency would reach $500,000, adding that he also believed it would eventually reach $1 million. Bitcoin was then trading at around $44,300.

He said at the time that Bitcoin’s price would rise once the Fed backed off from raising interest rates.

On Wednesday, he predicted that the $500,000 mark would eventually be reached, but not in the next five years, and he again pointed to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s interest rate decisions.

“What makes me skeptical that we can have those explosive, back-to-the-old highlights this year is Chairman Powell,” Novogratz said. “He’s really doing what he says he’s going to do, and I don’t see the Fed swinging and cutting anytime soon.”

He is not the only crypto investor who remains bullish on Bitcoin in the long term. Earlier this month, ARK Investment Management CEO Cathie Wood, a longtime Bitcoin believer, said that while 2022 was a “terrible year for all things crypto,” her firm predicts that Bitcoin will reach “about $670,000” in five years and then could pass $1 million by 2030.

Of course, many top business thinkers disagree with such predictions – or discredit Bitcoin and other crypto altogether. Mark Mobius, the billionaire founder of Mobius Capital Partners, predicted in December that Bitcoin would fall to $10,000 at some point this year.

And Warren Buffett’s right-hand man Charlie Munger argued in one The Wall Street Journal stated this month that the United States should follow China’s lead and pass laws preventing both crypto trading and the creation of new cryptocurrencies.