Michael Novogratz’s Galaxy Adds More than $3 Billion in Assets This Year as Ether Picks Up Steam
Ether is going mainstream, much like Bitcoin did a year-and-a-half ago. Also, crypto is now becoming an asset class.
Crypto billionaire Michael Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY) recorded its biggest ever cash influx as Bitcoin and Ether rallied to their all-time highs.
Currently trading just under $62,000, Bitcoin made its ATH at $67,000 on Oct. 20. Ether meanwhile hit a new peak on Wednesday at $4,675 and is currently consolidating around $4,500, up over 520% this year so far.
While Ether is inching closer to $5k, Goldman Sachs has estimated that the digital asset’s price is set to reach $8,000 by year-end because “it has tracked inflation markets particularly closely.” The lastest spike in inflation breakevens suggests more upside for the second-largest cryptocurrency.
Crypto Becoming An Asset Class
At the end of October, Galaxy had $3.2 billion in assets, an increase of 45% from the prior month, according to global asset management head Steve Kurz. At the beginning of the year, the asset manager had less than $1 billion under its management.
One of the main drivers of its growth is Ether-focused Canadian ETF. The CI Galaxy Ethereum ETF (ETHX) has amassed more than $1 billion since launching in April.
According to Kurz, this flood of cash will continue to build as Ether gains mainstream adoption.
“Crypto’s becoming an asset class, not just an asset.” “From a market infrastructure and development of the asset class perspective, Ether is picking up steam, probably the way Bitcoin did a year-and-a-half ago.”
GLXY shares have also jumped 13% in the first three days of November, following the 50% uptrend last month.
Bitcoin Facing Competition From Ethereum
The US has yet to see an Ether ETF though the first Bitcoin ETF started trading last month, but it was linked to futures contracts trading on the CME, and a spot crypto ETF is nowhere near being approved. Analysts expect Ether futures ETF to get the green light soon as well, even before the physically-backed Bitcoin fund gets approved.
Besides the potential to have its future ETF launching, CME has also announced that it is launching Micro Ethereum Futures early next month.
“It has become clear in the last six months that bitcoin faces competition as Ethereum and other Layer 1 assets become more innovative, with DeFi and NFT use cases, while bitcoin’s primary use case continues to be as a scarce, fungible digital asset,” said Chainalysis chief economist Philip Gradwell.
He pointed out how an additional 4 million ETH have flooded into DeFi in the last six months, bringing the total to 17.6 million Ethereum — 15% of Ether’s total supply.
“These are all very positive developments for crypto, and I think its potential is now clearer than ever,” said Gradwell.
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