How One Trader Made Billions With Ethereum, And What He's Doing Next

Authored by Tyler Durder

Former Fortress Principal Michael Novogratz left the firm's colossal macro hedge fund almost two years ago, but has been discussing investments in virtual currencies since 2013 when he told a UBS conference...

"Put a little money in Bitcoin...Come back in a few years and it’s going to be worth a lot."
He was of course correct, Bitcoin was trading around $200 at the time and as recently as three weeks ago was worth $5000...

The last time we heard from Novogratz was in June 2017, at the CB Insights Future of Fintech conference in New York, where he told attendees that he 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."

However, while this all sounded desperately downbeat, Novogratz was still very "positively constructive" on the space overall. He should be - he has 20% of his net worth invested in the sector... and now, as Bloomberg reports, Mike Novogratz is reinventing himself as the king of bitcoin.

Novogratz has had a very good run. Aside from his epic call in Bitcoin, he has done extremely well in Ethereum, as Bloomberg details...It started with a late-2015 visit to a friend’s startup in Brooklyn.

He said he paid tax on the profits, bought a Gulfstream G550 jet and donated an equal amount to a philanthropic project for criminal justice reform.

Novogratz was hooked, and according to a person familiar with his plans, Bloomberg reports that the outspoken macro manager is starting a $500 million hedge fund to invest in cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings and related companies. Novogratz will put up $150 million of his own money and plans to raise $350 million more by January, mainly from family offices, wealthy individuals and fellow hedge fund managers.