Lionel Laurent, Columnist

Ray Dalio Has a Point About Bitcoin At $18,000

Is this about hoarding digital gold, or getting rich quick?

November 18, 2020 at 8:30 AM UTC

Lionel Laurent is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist writing about the future of money and the future of Europe. Previously, he was a reporter for Reuters and Forbes.

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Mike Novogratz, famous for making the jump from Wall Street to cryptocurrencies, has regularly drawn a link between the global pandemic, financial stimulus and the allure of Bitcoin as a safe haven. “Now is the time to invest in Bitcoin,” his crypto firm Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd. thundered in a newspaper ad in August. “I’d be much more nervous [about a price drop] if I thought we’re going to cure Covid and all of a sudden everyone’s going to be fiscally conservative,” Novogratz said at the time.

He got one thing right. Bitcoin is now trading near $18,000, up almost 100% in six months and it’s flirting with an all-time high reached in 2017 (which, given it was followed by an ugly crash, faithful Bitcoiners would rather forget). Shares of Galaxy have done even better, rising by 380%. Total assets at Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, the biggest trust provider in the cryptocurrency, have risen fourfold this year to $8.4 billion.