Mike Novogratz is the CEO of Galaxy Digital, a merchant bank with a balance sheet to invest that seeks to serve as the bridge between the crypto and institutional investment worlds. Mike is well-known speculator who started his career at Goldman Sachs and later managed Fortress’ multi-billion dollar hedge fund, the Drawbridge Global Macro Fund. He’s notably made and lost a few fortunes in his career, most recently riding bitcoin up starting in 2013, almost all the way down in 2017, and back up again this year. Our conversation covers Mike’s background as a wrestler and helicopter pilot, his development from salesman to trader, the art of speculation, his initial interest in Bitcoin, the business of Galaxy Digital, the development of the crypto ecosystem use cases in privacy, payments and video games, and obstacles to institutional adoption of crypto and blockchain assets. We close by discussing how Mike invests his family office assets and his engagement with criminal justice reform.
