Bitcoin can hit $500,000 in 5 years, says billionaire investor Mike Novogratz

File image of Wall Street billionaire Mike Novogratz. He is bullish on Bitcoin

Billionaire investor Mike Novogratz says that Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s largest digital currency by market capitalisation, can hit the $500,000 mark in the next five years, thanks to increased adoption and outstanding properties. The Wall Street veteran said Bitcoin has some outstanding properties, including being tailor-made to be an anti-inflation store of value.

‘Better than gold’

“The ability to easily transfer makes it better than gold in so many different ways,” Novogratz said at the Bloomberg Crypto Summit, noting that the debt-driven global financial system was luring inflation and that BTC could act as a hedge against inflation and as a store of wealth. He had last month said the global economy was headed towards a “really fast recession” and that regulators were not doing enough to protect retail investors as institutions were playing with leverage.

The investor added that the worst is over for the crypto market and while current issues may have increased distrust among retail investors, the argument for Bitcoin is still strong.

Death spiral

After BTC hit an all-time high of $69,000 last November, the cryptocurrency market has been in a downtrend. Hyperinflation, coupled with numerous other problems plaguing the crypto space, particularly the collapse of the Terra blockchain and its native token Luna, has made investors jittery and plunged the crypto market into a death spiral.

The fall of major crypto firms Celsius, Three Arrows Capital and Babel have also dragged the industry down. The market has since been struggling with a “crypto winter,” a term used to describe the bearish sentiments in the crypto industry.