Does Mike Novogratz hold more than $5B in crypto?

Galaxy Digital founder and CEO Mike Novogratz, a billionaire active in the digital asset space, says up to 85% of his net worth is in cryptocurrencies.

In an interview with New York Magazine’s Intelligencer published today, Novogratz said that while he did have roughly 30% of his net worth in crypto starting at the 2017 bull run, the recent price surges in the crypto space had increased the valuation of his holdings, making them “up to 85 percent“ of the billionaire investor’s net worth. According to Bloomberg, Novogratz is valued at $6.25 billion as of May 12, meaning his crypto could potentially be worth $5.3 billion.

This estimate would purportedly include Novogratz’s personal holdings and potentially ownership of crypto firms — Galaxy Digital announced last week it would acquire institutional crypto custodian service and wallet operator BitGo for $1.2 billion. The CEO added that while he might be a HODLer, his lifestyle made such investments possible:

"I’m lucky enough that I had wealth outside of crypto wealth. I’m as bullish as I’ve been on the space. But I see lots of people that have gone from one lifestyle to having the possibility of really having changed their life. And I’m like, guys, be prudent, take a little bit off the table."

It’s unclear what effect the recent volatility in both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) may have had on Novogratz’s holdings. The price of many cryptocurrencies dropped suddenly yesterday as Elon Musk announced Tesla would suspend its support for vehicle purchases in BTC. This downturn preceded Bloomberg reporting that Binance was under investigation by both the U.S. Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service.

At the time of publication, the BTC price is $49,096, having fallen more than 9% in the last 24 hours. While Novogratz predicted “of course” ETH could reach a price of $5,000, the token is seeing a similar downturn to BTC, falling 9% in the last 24 hours to reach $3,706.

“The last five months have kind of rocked our worlds in terms of what percentage of our net worth is in crypto,” said the Galaxy Digital CEO. “Cryptos had a move that is a once-in-a-generation move. And I think people should understand that it’s not going to keep happening over and over. Like this idea that we’ve gone from not-an-asset-class to an asset class only can happen once.”