Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz Admits He Was Wrong About XRP and Altcoins

Altcoins Galaxy Digital Mike Novogratz XRP

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Hongji Feng

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Hongji Feng

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Hongji is a crypto and tech reporter. He graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism with a Bachelor's and a Master's. He has previously interned at HTX (Huobi Global),...

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December 11, 2023 06:16 EST

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Mike Novogratz, Founder and CEO of Galaxy Digital admitted that he was wrong about XRP in an interview. Novogratz also said that altcoins are currently store of value and might have utilities in the future.

Novogratz was originally skeptical about XRP, especially regarding its distribution and how Ripple Labs, the creator and issuer of XRP, owned a significant amount of the coin. “[The distribution] doesn’t seem a proposition that’s going to work,” said Novogratz. “And I’ve been dead wrong.”

Wrong About XRP and Altcoins

“Ripple is now an institution; the XRP Army is real; they care about their ecosystem and their coin,” said Novogratz. “It’s got a use case but broadly the use case is the same as Bitcoin. It’s another place for people who want to store value.”

Commenting on the 2023 crypto market and the annual gain of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and altcoins, Novogratz said that all altcoins are “a form of Bitcoin” and most of the value in altcoins is store of value, meaning that people are investing in these digital assets because they believe that the assets will not depreciate but maintain its value over a long period.

“I used to say there are 114 elements on the periodic table, gold is the only one that has value just because it does. And the rest all need utility,” said Novogratz. “And I thought Bitcoin could have value just as a store of value, and Ethereum and everything else needed utility.”

“Where I was wrong is, all of these cryptos are in some way a form of Bitcoin at this point,” explained Novogratz. “These ETFs and these new inflows are buying time for any utility that we’ll see in the future to get built. But most of the value in Solana, Ethereum, or Doge is store value.”

The Narrative Game of Crypto Market

Novogratz summarized the current crypto market to be a “narrative game,” where the companies and issuers act like storytellers to attract consumers and investors. He expected that to change in the future, to build a financial market and the regulatory infrastructure.