{"id":84734,"date":"2017-09-27T07:20:46","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T11:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=84734"},"modified":"2017-09-27T07:22:32","modified_gmt":"2017-09-27T11:22:32","slug":"how-one-trader-made-billions-with-ethereum-and-what-hes-doing-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=84734","title":{"rendered":"How One Trader Made Billions With Ethereum, And What He’s Doing Next"},"content":{"rendered":"

ZeroHedge.com<\/p>\n

Former Fortress Principal Michael Novogratz left the firm’s colossal macro hedge fund almost two years ago, but has\u00a0been discussing investments in virtual currencies since 2013 when he told a UBS conference…<\/a><\/p>\n

\n“Put a little money in Bitcoin…Come back in a few years and it\u2019s going to be worth a lot.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He was of course correct, Bitcoin was trading around $200 at the time and as recently as three weeks ago was worth $5000…<\/p>\n

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The last time we heard from Novogratz was in June 2017,<\/a>\u00a0at the CB Insights Future of Fintech conference in New York, where he told attendees that\u00a0he has cut holdings (in Bitcoin and Ethereum) after the cryptocurrencies’ latest “spectacular run,” warning that “Euthereum had likely hit its highs for the year,” and “cryptocurrencies were likely the biggest bubble of his lifetime.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, while this all sounded desperately downbeat, Novogratz was still very\u00a0“positively constructive” on the space<\/strong>\u00a0overall. He should be – he has\u00a020% of his net worth invested in the sector<\/strong>… and now, as Bloomberg reports,\u00a0Mike Novogratz is reinventing himself as the king of bitcoin<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Novogratz has had a very good run. Aside from his epic call in Bitcoin, he has done extremely well in Ethereum,\u00a0as Bloomberg details<\/a>…It started with a late-2015 visit to a friend\u2019s startup in Brooklyn.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\u201cI expected to see Joe, a dog and one assistant. Instead I saw 30 dynamic young people crammed in a Bushwick warehouse, coding, talking on the phone, making plans for this revolution,\u201d<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0Novogratz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMacro guys are instinctive. My instinct was, \u2018I want to buy a chunk of this company.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

He decided instead to invest in ether, the cryptocurrency token used on the Ethereum network.<\/p>\n

Novogratz bought about $500,000 at less than a dollar per ether and left on a vacation to India.\u00a0<\/strong>By the time he returned a few weeks later, the price had risen more than fivefold.\u00a0He bought more.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over the course of 2016 and into 2017, as\u00a0ether surged to almost $400<\/strong>\u00a0and bitcoin topped $2,500, Novogratz\u00a0sold enough to make about $250 million, the biggest haul of any single trade in his career.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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He said he paid tax on the profits,\u00a0bought a Gulfstream G550 jet and donated an equal amount to a philanthropic project for criminal justice reform.<\/strong><\/p>\n