The CEO of Galaxy Investment Partners estimates that around 140 million people have adopted Bitcoin so far. The billionaire investor said the cryptocurrency had been around amid a lack of confidence in the US dollar.

Mike Novogratz recently said that Bitcoin (BTC) should allow people to store the fruit of their work. The CEO of Galaxy Investment Partners talked to renowned cryptocurrency influencer Anthony Pompliano about the impact of Bitcoin on humanity.

The executive considers that the level of adoption of Bitcoin is reaching a turning point. He said that was understandable as institutions, hedge funds, and many more people are acquiring it worldwide.

Novogratz mentioned that Russia and Turkey administered the financial economy horribly, which led the use of Bitcoin to increase. He commented that people see the pioneering cryptocurrency as a gift from God that allows them to the fruit of their work.

The billionaire cryptocurrency investors stated that Bitcoin is a state of 140 million people, referring to the number of users who own some Bitcoin. He believes that the ecosystem has an economy that positions it as the eighth-largest country. In addition, he predicted that the crypto asset would continue to grow without anyone forcing its use.

Concerning the current narrative in the Bitcoin environment, Novogratz said that the order in the eighth-strongest economy is long-term storage. He explained that this contrasts with the message prevailing in the rest of the world. He highlighted that no one would keep US dollars in cash under the mattress or deposit USD 10 billion in a bank account.

Novogratz told Pompliano that the collapse in confidence in the US dollar began to emerge with Bitcoin. He pointed out that people stopped trusting authority, banks, or the government, leading to a bearish confidence market. The executive said that the media outlets show that people no longer see the US dollar as a risk-free asset.

However, he warned that the narrative about Bitcoin is not that it will replace the US dollar or become a payment method to buy fancy shoes. He explained that people are talking about taking a part of their wealth to preserve it and store it with an asset correlated with NASDAQ.

If Bitcoin Rises, the Other Economies Have Crashed

Novogratz confessed that he hoped the US dollar would remain stable and Bitcoin would not skyrocket to infinity. He said that the rest of the Western world would collapse and lose social order if the opposite happened.

For that reason, he believes that the Bitcoin price can reach USD 1 million. He considers Western financial stability will have vanished if the value breaks through that barrier.

Two years ago, Novogratz recommended investing between 2% and 3% of personal assets in Bitcoin and seeing the results within five years.

Bitcoin is trading at around USD 43,546 and has accumulated a 0.3% loss over the last 24 hours. Its daily trading volume is above USD 28.08 billion, and its market capitalization is about USD 827.94 billion, according to CoinGecko.

By Alexander Salazar

For the bulls, not all is going according to plan, warnings say, as support at $44,000 hangs in the balance.

Bitcoin (BTC) continued its slide at the open on Wall Street on Wednesday with its first test of $44,000 since early April.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed that the BTC/USD pair hit a 12-day low of $43,801 on Bitstamp, down more than 7% from the month’s high.

The move defied positive triggers in the form of new MicroStrategy and Terra acquisitions, but analysts were instead eyeing macroeconomic factors as the next potential BTC price driver.

BTC’s Price Hits Two-week Lows

Jeroen Blokland, portfolio manager at asset manager Robeco, said that the 10-year US Treasury yield, trending higher throughout the year, should reverse direction and give risky assets a breather. “We haven’t gotten to that point yet,” he warned that day, though.

On Twitter, Holger Zschaepitz (@Schuldensuehner), market commentator, posted that, “US 10y yields jump to 2.56% thx largely to Brainard’s hawkish remarks, which raised fears ahead of FOMC minutes on Wed.”

In a possible counter move, the US Federal Reserve has revealed that an “aggressive” balance sheet reduction is due to begin in May, marking the end of the “easy money” policy that many had feared would put pressure on demand for risk assets.

“It is of the utmost importance to bring inflation down,” future Fed Vice Chair Lael Brainard said in remarks at a conference this week, quoted by the Financial Times, among other sources.

“Consequently, the committee will continue to methodically tighten monetary policy through a series of interest rate hikes and beginning to shrink the balance sheet at a rapid pace beginning with our May meeting,” Brainard pointed out.

Inflation continued to disrupt sentiment beyond the US, with Eurozone annual producer price inflation making the biggest jump on record in February – over 31%. On the eve of war between Russia and Ukraine, future readings are likely to be even higher.

Current Spot Price Zone Crucial to Hold

In a worrying environment, price watchers were keen to take a breather, calling for $44,000 to remain as a bullish base.

Private fund manager and CryptoQuant contributor, known by his popular Twitter account Gaah, argued that $44,400 was the level to defend to avoid a tailspin that could take the market to $37,000.

“Something is off and the next few days will show what is happening,” Crypto trader Ed added, sounding more concerned. A failure to hold $45,000, something that came later, would thus pave the way for the $43,000 low, he said in his latest YouTube update.

Predictions about Bitcoin Prices in 2022

Bitcoin price history shows that after starting 2021 with a value of $28,994.01, the cryptocurrency rose to reach an all-time high of $68,789.63 on November 10. It then fell rapidly after that, ending the year at $46,306.45.

The Bitcoin price trend has continued downward this year, falling to a low of $33,184.06 on January 24 and concluding on February 20 at $38,431.38, a fall of 17% to date.

According to an article by Mads Eberhardt, a cryptocurrency analyst at Danish bank Saxo, “It appears that the cryptocurrency market has, to a large extent, been driven by the same factors as equity markets: inflation concerns and stress between Russia and Ukraine. Furthermore, following the transformation of risk sentiment in equities, accentuated by the slide in tech stocks this year, the cryptocurrency market has taken a hit as more traditional stock traders may also have cryptocurrencies in their portfolios, thereby scaling their risk proportionally between stocks and cryptocurrencies.”

By Audy Castaneda

Most developers see cryptocurrency and Blockchain-related innovation as “essential in shaping the future of the metaverse.”

A new study shows that developers believe that the Metaverse may one day become the “most popular” way to buy and sell cryptocurrencies.

The study, commissioned by Agora, the API provider, surveyed 300 developers about their thoughts and ideas about the metaverse. “Since they will be at the forefront of virtually every development in the metaverse, their thoughts and opinions ultimately carry great weight,” said Tony Zhao, founder, and CEO of Agora.

Main Findings from the Study

The survey shows that 57% of developers believe that the metaverse will one day be the most prominent way to trade cryptocurrencies. However, one in three respondents believes that privacy and data security can be a major challenge for the Metaverse.

Separately, the pollsters also asked the developers if the role of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) would continue to grow and become the main form of currency in the Metaverse. Fifty-three percent of respondents agreed, while 24% disagreed.

The researchers also found that most developers think crypto and Blockchain-related innovation will be “critical in shaping the future of the metaverse.” Seventy percent of respondents agree that developments in the sphere of Blockchain and cryptocurrencies will significantly affect the metaverse.

Slightly over seventy percent of survey participants think real-time engagement will be crucial to creating a “connected experience” within the metaverse. Furthermore, the results also showed that 55% of the participants believe that the Metaverse will replace real-life social interactions in the near future.

As early as March 2022, some companies began setting up stores in the Metaverse. Firms have launched or announced plans to take their businesses online. Companies intend to use the metaverse for business meetings, as a hub for innovation, and as a platform for user engagement.

Still, Metaverse is Not Very Appealing, According to Google Trends

While developers are optimistic about the Metaverse, data from Google Trends shows that the fever may have passed as early as February 2022.

Google Trends shows that over the last twelve months, “metaverse” searches gained relevance between October and December 2021. However, since the beginning of 2022, search interest continues to decline, reaching its lowest point for 2022 in March.

Apart from the keyword “metaverse”, the data shows that the global search for “NFT” has also started its decline this year. However, the drop in interest in NFT is more notable, as it hit all-time highs in 2021 and then fell sharply in the first quarter of 2022.

In December 2021, global search interest for “NFT” surpassed that for “crypto” for the first time. Additionally, the monthly trading volume on the NFT marketplace OpenSea also hit a new all-time high in January. The increase in keyword search volume and trading volume shows that NFTs have finally caught public attention.

The growth of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in 2021 has been attributed to some of the biggest NFT auctions of the past year and celebrities starting offering their own collections. From influential rappers like Snoop Dogg to marketers like Gary Vaynerchuk, many figures brought interest to NFTs last year.

By Audy Castaneda