Speaking on Bloomberg TV on Aug. 29, the founder of merchant bank Galaxy Digital noted that regardless of this week’s sideways trading, Bitcoin was still up over 200% this year.
Bitcoin price may have fallen below $10,000 again but that is no reason to doubt the 2019 bull market, industry investor Mike Novogratz has said.
Unlike altcoin markets, the largest cryptocurrency was in separate league, and had broadly delivered for investors.
Novogratz: Bitcoin “has had a huge run”
“Bitcoin started the year at $3,800, traded at $3,500 and now it’s at $10,200 and so it’s up 200% odd percent already”, he told the network. He added:
“It has had a huge run, and so I think this is a bit of consolidation.”
Institutions “getting their ducks lined up”
Novogratz was speaking just hours before Bitcoin markets experienced a sudden dip which took them $500 lower in a matter of minutes.
While no single factor appeared to trigger a change in sentiment, the move was in line with behavior seen often in recent months. As Cointelegraph reported, margin trading is increasingly considered as a major factor behind sudden changes in BTC/USD.
As of press time Thursday, the pair was nonetheless lower still, averaging just over $9,500 on the back of 6.3% daily losses.
For Novogratz, however, increased entry of institutions into the arena will spark the next phase of Bitcoin’s bull cycle.
“The institutions that are making longer-term decisions are making sure they’ve got custody, making sure their ducks are lined up – and they’re slowly and steadily moving in”, he continued.
Novogratz is well known as a Bitcoin permabull. In August, he said global macroeconomic turbulence would fuel favorable price movements going forward, while a month previously, he pledged not to sell any more of his holdings below $14,000.
Bitcoin Price Drops Sharply Below $10K, Marking New Weekly Low
The price of Bitcoin has dropped dramatically today, falling by $600 at 6:00 p.m. UTC on Aug. 28.
In the course of an hour, the Bitcoin price sank from $10,269 to $9,630, but is currently attempting to stage a recovery. At press time the coin is trading at $9,721.
Bitcoin’s current position marks a weekly low for the seminal cryptocurrency, after hitting a seven-day high of $10,791 on Aug. 20. On its 30-day chart, the coin is down to just above where it started at $9,519 on July 28.
The recent drop in price follows news that Bakkt – the much-anticipated Bitcoin futures platform – will let clients start depositing assets in its custodial offering Bakkt Warehouse on Sept. 6. Earlier this month, Bakkt announced that trading in its physically-delivered Bitcoin futures contracts would begin on Sept. 23.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group’s managing director Tim McCourt recently said that Bitcoin futures saw an average daily volume of $515 million in May 2019. On May 13, Bitcoin traded a record daily volume of 33,677 contracts, equivalent to over 168,000 BTC.
