Bitcoin adoption is the main key right now, Novogratz says

Mike Novogratz, CEO of financial services firm Galaxy Digital, recently expressed his usual bullish Bitcoin sentiments on CNBC’s Squawk Box morning show. During the short segment, the show’s interviewer asked Novogratz about Bitcoin (BTC) in relation to gold. He noted that big players are seemingly buying crypto after selling their gold investments, with gold recently seeing an all-time high level of outflow.

“I think it’s meaningful but it’s not the real story,” Novogratz said on Tuesday morning. “The real story is adoption of Bitcoin, adoption of crypto, across a vast variety of accounts,” he noted, going on to mention Guggenheim's recent interest in picking up $500 million of Grayscale’s GBTC asset.

"It's just a litany of institutional investors that are changing their mind, or realizing that now is the time, there's enough liquidity for Bitcoin to be part of it," said Novogratz, referencing the mainstream players who have invested in Bitcoin in 2020, including billionaire hedge funder Paul Tudor Jones and Microstrategy, a business intelligence firm.

“If Bitcoin was easy to buy, the price would have been a lot higher,” Novogratz explained. “Grayscale Trust was a very interesting way for people to get an ETF-like exposure.”

In contrast, gold enthusiast and known Bitcoin skeptic Peter Schiff remains opposed to the digital asset. “CNBC’s excessive coverage of #Bitcoin sets a new low in financial journalism ethics,” Schiff tweeted on Tuesday. “Their constant promotion has legitimized the asset in the eyes of their audience, many of whom will buy and then be left holding the bag when the whales dump what @CNBC helped pump.”

Schiff's tweet calls out CNBC's coverage in general. While he did not mention the segment directly, the timing of his comment seemingly lines up with the morning's Squawk Box segment, coming shortly after Novogratz joined the show.

“Bitcoin pumpers assured HODLers that once #Bitcoin made a new high, momentum investors would rush in to buy,” Schiff tweeted on Tuesday.

“That was part of the pump to keep the little guys on board while the big guys dumped. Bitcoin made a new high, but instead of new money rushing in, old money cashed out.”

Bitcoin broke its all-time price high of $19,892 early Tuesday morning, briefly hitting approximately $19,915 on Coinbase before dumping more than $1,500.