bitcoin: Billionaire Novogratz still backs Bitcoin over gold

Michael Novogratz, founder and chief executive officer of Galaxy Digital, told the Qatar Economic Forum he is still a buyer of bitcoin and prefers the digital currency to buying gold.

Earlier on Tuesday, the chief executive officer of Binance Holdings said the cryptocurrency market is still “pretty healthy” despite a recent selloff. Swiss Re Chairman Sergio Ermotti, meanwhile, called cyber risk one the biggest challenges facing companies, second only to the pandemic.

The three-day event kicked off on Monday, with billionaire investor Ray Dalio and former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers telling the Forum the US is headed for a period of overheating and inflation that could threaten the recovery.

Novogratz: Long-Bitcoin trumps long-gold

Billionaire investor Novogratz said he looks at Bitcoin as “digital gold.” “If you’re going to be long gold, Bitcoin is a better version because it’s got the same macro tailwinds but it is also very early in the adoption curve.”

“Crypto is a luxury in the developed markets, it’s a necessity in the developing markets, where you’ve got currencies that devalue 20% to 30% every year,” Novogratz said. For the general user of crypto, though, Bitcoin and Ethereum is “probably enough,” he said.

Dan Morehead, chief executive officer of Pantera Capital, said on the same panel that there are a lot of good crypto products besides Bitcoin to invest in. “This year, Bitcoin is up 34%, our hedge fund that trades the liquid tokens is up 240%,” he said.

“Ethereum is the second-biggest, it’s very important.”

Binance CEO says crypto market still healthy

“It’s very hard to tell” why the currencies have been dropping, Binance Holdings Chief Executive Changpeng Zhao said in an interview, citing positive news like El Salvador adopting Bitcoin and negative headlines such as China cracking down on the currency. “From our perspective, we just see people placing orders.”

China’s intensifying cryptocurrency crackdown has left Bitcoin flirting with $30,000, a price level seen as key to the short-term outlook for the largest virtual currency.

Zhao said he expects more countries to adopt cryptocurrencies, and that China’s clampdown on miners will have a short-term impact rather than a long-term one.