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Billionaire Mike Novogratz Says Bitcoin At $30,000 Is Unlikely

Bitcoin price has been a topic of debate since the digital asset first made its entry into the mainstream over a decade ago. With its continued growth, a lot of people have come forward to proffer their predictions for the price of the cryptocurrency both in the long and the short term. One of those is billionaire Mike Novogratz. However, despite being usually bullish on the price of bitcoin, Novogratz does not seem to expect much in the short term.

Bitcoin Unlikely To Reach $30,000

Currently, the price of bitcoin is bouncing between the $23,000 and $24,000 level. This has seen a lot of speculation as regards what will happen when the digital asset is able to break out of this rut finally. For many, the recent recovery has led them to believe that there will definitely be a run-up back to $30,000, where the price had fallen from. However, not everyone seems to share this bullish short-term sentiment, and Novogratz is one of those.

The CEO of Galaxy Digital has been one of the many proponents of bitcoin, investing in the asset both on a personal and professional level. However, with bitcoin’s current trend, Novogratz does not expect a recovery. Mainly, he does not expect the asset to see $30,000.

BTC trending above $23,000 | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

Novogratz explained during an interview with Bloomberg that he fully expected the price of the digital asset to continue to trend between $20,000 to $22,000, not believing that a break above $30,000 is possible with the recent run-up. “I’d quite frankly be happy if we’re in a $20,000 – $22,000 or $20,000 – $30,000 range for a while, with the next move breaking up,” he added.

Factors Dragging Down Bitcoin

There are a number of things that affects the cryptocurrency market and, by extension, the price of bitcoin. Recently, the news of the United States going into a recession has been the catalyst for the recovery trend, but Novogratz believes that the performance of bitcoin continues to be greatly tied to decisions by the government.

The Fed had once again increased interest rates which had affected the financial markets. With the current situation, any decision from the Fed has an impact on the digital asset due to its close correlation with the macro markets at the moment. But Novogratz believes that the Fed will stop raising rates, which is expected to have a positive impact on financial markets.

Despite not believing that the price of Bitcoin cannot touch $30,000 during this run-up, it has not changed the billionaire’s stance on bitcoin. He has previously stated that the price of the digital asset will grow to $500,000. His company also remains committed to its bitcoin strategy, holding a total of 16,402 BTC, making it the public company with the third-largest bitcoin holding in the world.

Featured image from CryptoPotato, chart from TradingView.com

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Blue Chip NFTs 101 – Down, Down, To Goblintown. An Unlikely Success Story

Goblintown ‘s rise to the top is one for the books. The Moonbirds came into prominence in a bearish market, but the Goblins took over in the middle of a global recession and the NFTs first winter. How did these misfits do it? Using confusion, misdirection, FOMO, and a great marketing plan that took everyone by surprise. People weren’t sure of what was happening, but they didn’t want to stay out of the party. 

The creators of Goblintown made it easy for them. First of all, the project was a free mint. Second, it uses a Creative Commons Zero license, which means no Copyright and the possibility of commercializing the Goblin drawings as needed. Third, even though the hype was there, they didn’t use influencers, cross promotions, or whitelisting. Maybe because of that, the mint didn’t generate a gas war like many other successful projects.

Goblintown ‘s Unusual Launch

Launched on May 22, 2022, the generative collection runs over the Ethereum blockchain. From the beginning, Goblintown promised, “No roadmap. No Discord. No utility. CC0. Contract wasn’t actually written by goblins.” The other sentence that stands out from Goblintown’s website is: “Don’t be f*cking greedy. That’s how we got ourselves here.” This suggests that the collection serves as a commentary on the NFT market and culture. And that’s not the only clue pointing that way. 

On the slightly negative side, the royalties are a whopping 10% and the creators set aside 1000 NFTs for their other projects’ holders. Considering Goblintown was a free mint, those two factors don’t seem that bad. So far, the main collection has generated 43.9K ETH in total sale volume and has a 3.1 ETH floor price at Opensea. For a moment there, Goblintown was so hot that it flipped the almighty Bored Ape Yacht Club and became the highest-selling collection for a day or two. 

The Mystery Of Goblintown’s Creators

At first, they thought it was notorious NFT artist Beeple. Then, that the infamous Yuga Labs was behind the project. For a time there, people even believed that the brain and voice behind “Beavis And Butthead” and “King of the Hill,” Mike Judge was Goblintown’s creator. And, since one of the Goblins kind of looks like Snoop Dogg, that rumor circulated too. It made sense because people still believe that Snoop is famed NFT collector Cozomo de’ Medici, even though that story proved to be false.

The only one that came forward and addressed the rumors was Beeple, who tweeted, “insane I have to say this, but I have not joined any shockingly low effort pump and dump projects that will remain nameless.” Later, as the Goblintown project proved its worth, the creator changed his tune and tweeted the piece “The rise and fall of Goblintown” together with the hashtag “#iamthefounder.”

However, Beeple was not the founder. Seeing Goblintown’s immense success, the mysterious creators had to doxx themselves. Just in time for the NFT NYC conference, they released a message in which they admitted that Truth Labs was behind the project. The company was behind the mildly successful NFT collections Illuminati Collective and The 187, and struck gold with their third outing.  

On Truth’s website they define themselves as:

“We are dedicated to sharing delightful blockchain mischief, exploring creatively, developing rich, fun worlds and experiences (both IRL and in the digital realm), and providing a platform for new voices and visions in this space.”

In a strange turn of events, as the creators doxxed themselves, Goblintown’s floor price fell from almost 5 ETH to a little over 3 ETH. 

ETH price chart for 07/16/2022 on Binance | Source: ETH/USD on TradingView.com
The Collection’s Iconography

The Goblintown name comes from The Hobbit, specifically from a J.R.R. Tolkien poem called “Down, Down, To Goblin Town.” That name also suggests that the collection serves as a commentary on the NFT market in the crypto winter. Are there other clues? Several. For example, one goblin like Dj and producer Steve Aoki, who’s a notorious NFT collector. Another one wears a t-shirt that says “Phunks, Zunks, Tendies, Azuki,” a clear reference to Azuki’s creator and all of his rugged previous projects.

Yet another one of the traits is a reference to the infamous Mike Novogratz’s Luna tattoo, and thus a commentary on Terra’s collapse. 

And, what about this image that references a lot of blue chip NFT projects and is titled “Up, Up, To Goblintown.” 

And well, speaking about Steve Aoki, he was the Dj at Goblintown’s highly coveted NFT NYC party. There, he premiered the horrible NFT song “Piss On the Dance Floor (Goblintown Anthem).“ You can still buy it at a reasonable price here. And, speaking about NFT NYC, for better or worse, Goblintown managed to be the center of attention throughout the whole conference. 

What a story.

Featured Image: Screenshot from their site | Charts by TradingView

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Don’t Expect A Bitcoin Recovery Anytime Soon, Galaxy Digital CEO

Billionaire Mike Novogratz has warned investors to not expect much of a recovery in bitcoin anytime soon. Novogratz who serves as the CEO of the digital asset merchant bank Galaxy Digital has always been a big proponent of Bitcoin and its advantages. However, he has recently shared his thoughts on the current market climate and what investors should be expecting in the coming days.

Confidence Will Take A While

The recent market crash has seriously impacted investor faith in the cryptocurrency market. As such, sell-offs across digital assets such as bitcoin have been rampant. Sentiment has also suffered greatly during this time and has led to low momentum in the market. This is not changing anytime soon.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Bounces Back Before Hitting 2017 Peak, Is The Bottom In?

Speaking with Bloomberg, the Galaxy Digital CEO explained that it will take a while for bitcoin to recover to previous levels. He chalks this up to the confidence level of investors when it comes to putting money into crypto, which he says will take a while for that confidence to return.

Bears take hold of BTC | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

Novogratz also speaks to the current economic climate. One thing that has rocked various financial markets has been the hiking of rates by the Fed, the most recent hike happening on Wednesday. He notes that the Fed would have to let up on hiking interest rates at some point and once it does, more money from global macro hedge funds will flow into the market. At this point, Novogratz admits that Galaxy Digital will add more bitcoin to its holdings.

Bitcoin On The Charts

The price of bitcoin continues to fluctuate heavily between the $20,000 and $21,000 levels. This shows that while there is mounting resistance at the $22,000 point, there is also good support building up in the low $20,000s.

The short-term prognosis for the digital asset does not look good though. However, there are still some indicators that point to some recovery in the market. One of these is the cycle low before every bitcoin halving.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Funding Rates Remain Negative But Open Interest Tells Another Story

Usually, the bottom is reached at around 520 days, give or take a few weeks, before the next bitcoin halving. This has been the case for the last two halvings. If the digital asset follows this trend, then the bottom will be reached sometime in the last quarter of the year. Even though this points to some recovery in the short term, it also means that the current lows may not be the end of the decline if the bottom is expected to come in in Q4.

Bitcoin is trading at $20,902 at the time of this writing.

Featured image from Watcher Guru, chart from TradingView.com

Disclaimer: The following op-ed represents the views of the author, and may not necessarily reflect the views of Bitcoinist. Bitcoinist is an advocate of creative and financial freedom alike.

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Ethereum Gas Fees Touch New Lows, What’s Ahead For Ethereum

Ethereum is one of the most widely-adopted cryptocurrency projects worldwide. Yet, it’s hated worldwide for its sky-high gas (transaction) fees. Users globally constantly complain about the coin’s terribly-high transaction prices on various social media platforms.

Shockingly, Santiment, an on-chain and metrics platform, published on Twitter a report showing Ethereum’s transaction prices plummeting to their lowest.

The Ethereum Platform

Ethereum is a distributed, permissionless, and open-source blockchain that provides users access to a smart contract. It is the second-largest blockchain by market capitalization, following crypto giant Bitcoin.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Dominance Remains High As Market Sell-Offs Settle

Remarkably, Ethereum offers a p2p (peer-to-peer) network that verifies and executes codes within the platform, known as Smart Contracts.

Ethereum GAS Price

On the Ethereum network, users are charged some amounts to perform any transaction, buying, selling, swapping, minting, etc. Ethereum previously had a ridiculous record for having very high gas fees for its transactions.

Recently, the crypto giant began offering meager transactional charges to its users, as recorded by Santiment. Santiment is a financial market content and data platform for blockchains and cryptocurrencies.

The metric platform took to Twitter the news of Ethereum’s meager transaction prices. As of Tuesday, 24th May, the second-largest blockchain had a transaction price of $2.54 a transaction.

What’s Next For Ethereum
(Source: Santiment)

According to Santiment, this is the lowest the transaction fees have been since last July. Therefore, it may be unique for ETH prices. Historically, ETH coin prices usually leap once the average transactions drop below $5. Ethereum’s average gas fees have plummeted, breaking its 10-months low.

Nevertheless, traders still need to be careful while trading and transacting with the crypto because the market is presently disadvantaged. Thus, a considerable leap might not occur given the current global bearish market.

Various crypto pundits and financial analysts project that Bitcoin is about to dip massively, predicting a further dip. Mike Novogratz was among the “prophets of doom” for the world’s leading blockchain and crypto.

ETH price on the brink of falling below $1,700 | Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com

Novogratz, a financial investor, took to Twitter, stating that further dips await Ethereum and Bitcoin and the entire DeFi market. In his tweet, he emphasized that 2022 will not be so favorable for investors and traders.

Related Reading | Perp Traders Remain Quiet As Bitcoin Struggles To Hold $30,000

Noting that Bitcoin controls the value of the entire DeFi marketplace, if Bitcoin dips, being the most significant blockchain, the whole market dips. This includes the Ethereum blockchain.

Featured image from Pexels, chart from TradingView.com

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Mike Novogratz Doubles Down On $500,000 Bitcoin Prediction

Mike Novogratz has once again reiterated his support for the $500,000 future prediction for bitcoin. The Galaxy Digital CEO who was recently at the Bitcoin 2022 conference held in Miami had spoken in favor of the cryptocurrency once more, highlighting the future potential of the digital asset. Novogratz gave his prediction speaking at the conference but this is not the first time that the billionaire would be making such a prediction.

Pushing Bitcoin To $500,000

Novogratz who put bitcoin at $500,000 in the next half-decade had shared thoughts behind this prediction. One of those had been the economy and the growing inflation rates that have been plaguing it. The Federal Reserve had been working non-stop with increasing interest rates and stuff but the billionaire notes that once the Fed begins to take a pause from all of this, then the digital asset would resume its upward movement.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Trading Volume Continues To Remain At Low Levels

The billionaire expects that not only will the central bank raise interest rates due to the high inflation, but it will also likely raise these interest rates by as high as 50 basis points. However, this cannot continue on forever and the Fed will eventually need to ease up. This is when Novogratz predicts that bitcoin will go “to the moon”. This is what the billionaire expects will push the price of the digital asset as high as his $500,000 prediction.

BTC trading at $43,800 | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

Novogratz did not stop at $500,000 though. The Bitcoin proponent and maximalist also explained that he expects the digital asset to eventually reach as high as $1 million apiece.

Wary Of The Dollar

It seems bitcoin was not the only asset of concern for Novogratz during the Miami conference. He also touched upon the United States dollar as he expressed hope that the currency would continue to be strong instead of continuing to fall. 

Piecing together the relationship between bitcoin and the dollar, the billionaire explained that the dollar going to infinity would mean Bitcoin going to infinity which would overall not be good for the Western world in any way.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Exchange Traded Products Near 1% Of Total BTC Supply

“I go to bed and I pray that the stewards of the U.S. economy don’t screw it up,” said Novogratz. “I really do pray that the dollar is going to be strong and it doesn’t go to infinity because Bitcoin going to infinity means the rest of the Western world has really fallen apart.”

The Galaxy Digital CEO had previously said that he sees bitcoin going to $500,000. He had explained that he saw most cryptocurrencies dying out with time but that more people would want to own the digital asset which would be the major driver behind it hitting this price point.

Featured image from Somag News, chart from TradingView.com