Billionaire hedge fund manager Mike Novogratz has made a bullish price prediction for bitcoin and thinks that it could ‘easily’ reach $40,000 by the end of 2018.
The former Fortress manager was speaking on CNBC’s ‘Fast Money‘ on Monday where he said that it could increased by over four times its current worth in the next 13 months, adding:
Bitcoin could be at $40,000 at the end of 2018. It easily could.
The digital currency has been experiencing a surge in value in recent weeks, pushing it closer to the $10,000 mark. Yesterday, it was reported that bitcoin had scaled $9,700 for the first time, at $9,790. At the time of publishing, the cryptocurrency is continuing its upward trajectory and has been recorded at $9,949, according to CoinMarketCap. Its market cap is now valued at $166.2 billion.
Novogratz also commented on the rise of second-placed ethereum, which has risen to new heights.
He said:
Ethereum, which I think just touched $500 or is getting close, could be triple where it is as well.
Ethereum is currently trading at $479; however, yesterday it was within touching distance of $500, at $493, data from CoinMarketCap shows.
At the time of publishing the combined market cap of all the cryptocurrencies hit $308.8 billion, as it itches itself ever closer to the market cap value of JPMorgan Chase, currently valued at $343 billion.
Novogratz, who is planning to launch a $500 million digital assets fund through his new firm, Galaxy Investment Partners, said in an interview with Bloomberg last week that bitcoin would reach $10,000 before the end of the year.
At the time, the digital currency was trading around $8,400. Comparing bitcoin to digital gold, he said:
Gold has value solely because people say it has value; bitcoin is built on an amazing technology, there’s a limited supply of it. This whole revolution came out of a breakdown in trust in the 2008 crisis.
In a previous interview in October, the former hedge fund manager stated that he wouldn’t be surprised if the cryptocurrency rose to $10,000 within six to 10 months. It now looks set on course to achieving this milestone.
This latest price target set by Novogratz suggests his great confidence in where the market is heading, adding:
There’s a big wave of money coming, not just here but all around the world.
During his interview, Novogratz has admitted that he has ‘probably over 20 percent’ or ‘maybe even 30 percent’ of his net worth in digital currencies, which are split between bitcoin and ethereum. However, despite this, he recommends that retail people only put between one to three percent of their net worth in the space while wealthier investors should do no more than five to 10 percent.