Billionaire investor Mike Novogratz has revealed he believes institutional investors have helped bitcoin’s legitimacy increase over the last few months, and now “line up” to buy every BTC price dip they see.
Speaking to CNBC, Novogratz pointed out that a lot of Americans are going to receive stimulus checks worth $1,400 as part of a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package. Retail investors are, as such, entering the market, with a survey conducted by Mizuho Securities finding at least $40 billion of the $380 billion being distributed to Americans are set to be invested in bitcoin and stocks.
The price of bitcoin dipped from a new all-time high above $61,800 over the last few days to $53,000, in a price drop that Novogratz said was within one standard deviation. The billionaire investor focused on more bullish developments and claimed retail investors were behind this weekend’s rise to a new high.
"A lot of the stimulus checks are going to young people who want to buy #bitcoin," says @novogratz. "What happens on the weekend is retail gets excited you can tell because the cost of leverage goes way up on the weekend." pic.twitter.com/FST1xhJQFC
— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) March 15, 2021
Novogratz added that bitcoin’s legitimacy has been improving over the last few months thanks to institutional investors entering the space. Corporate adoption has also surged, as companies like Tesla, MicroStrategy, MassMutual, Ruffer Investment, and others bought BTC to gain exposure to the market.
To the billionaire investors, these buys led to a shift where “bitcoin has become an asset.” Per his words, it’s “not ‘maybe,’ it’s not ‘it might be,’ it’s now an asset class. Cryptocurrency is an asset class.”
He added that if investors are not long on BTC they are short, and as such: “On every dip there are institutional buyers lined up to buy this thing.”
Novogratz has last month predicted the price of bitcoin could hit $500,000 by 2024. It’s worth noting that analysis published by JPMorgan shows retail investment in bitcoin is growing, while the amount being bought by institutional investors has been decreasing.
The analysis, conducted by JPMorgan strategist Nikolas Panigirtzoglou, shows that retail investors bought 187,000 BTC this quarter, while institutional investors bought 173,000 BTC. Last quarter, retail investors bought 205,000 coins, compared to 307,000 bought by institutions.
