Bitcoin has likely been trading sideways as corporations have focused on stacking altcoins lately, though there could be an upswing coming later in the year, says Mike Novogratz, CEO of asset manager Galaxy Digital.
“Bitcoin's at a consolidation right now. Partly because you’re seeing a lot of these treasury companies in other coins take their shot,” said Novogratz during an episode of CNBC’s Squawk Box on Thursday.
Blockchain tech firm BitMine Immersion Technologies has been leading the pack among altcoin treasury firms, recently buying $200 million Ether (ETH) and growing its stockpile to over $9 billion in ETH.
Altcoins bring money and energy into space
Meanwhile, Nasdaq-listed design and manufacturing company Forward Industries said on Monday it had secured $1.65 billion in cash and stablecoin commitments to launch a Solana (SOL) focused crypto treasury strategy.
Novogratz said deals like this, led by crypto-native companies Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto and Multicoin Capital, are “bringing energy into the crypto space” and “bringing money into the crypto space.”
“And Bitcoin is kind of going sideways a little bit. I think, while these other ecosystems are having their moment, I think probably we have another big surge up towards the end of the year.”
Bitcoin could surge off the back of positive developments
Bitcoin has been drifting between $110,055 and $116,083 in the last seven days, according to CoinGecko.
Novogratz said a Bitcoin surge could come back as the US Federal Reserve starts its “cutting cycle,” and also from the continued positive developments in the space, such as Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins talking about modernizing the securities regulations to help move markets onchain.
The Galaxy Digital CEO also pointed to the Nasdaq stock market operator filing for a rule change with the SEC on Monday to allow tokenized versions of listed stocks and exchange-traded funds.
“This blockchain revolution had really just been Bitcoin as a store of value. And then stablecoins as cross-border payments,” Novogratz said.
“And what held us back was blockchains being fast enough, safe enough, secure enough and trusted enough, and more importantly, a regulatory framework that allowed people to experiment. And so now we have both.”
Crypto market moving from narrative to plot
Novogratz also predicts that despite “healthy competition” between different crypto firms, it’s unlikely there will ever be just one company that takes over, which can happen in the traditional finance world.
Related: Crypto treasuries ‘easy money’ ends, but that may be good for crypto
“Ethereum has its own community and and its own narrative and its own use case. Yes, it will compete against Solana and other blockchains, but it’s not like we’re going to have one blockchain to rule them all,” he said.
“But most importantly for the space, money is going to move into the space, as we start moving from narrative to plot.”
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