Buy Bitcoin or Gold? Novogratz and Portnoy Prefer the Cryptocurrency

Michael Novogratz is a veteran Wall Street fund manager and cryptocurrency maven who readily acknowledges when he earns a “black eye,” while Dave Portnoy is the brash founder of a media empire who only recently began touting stocks and has disparaged Warren Buffett.

Their backgrounds and personalities may be vastly different, but both are now offering the same investment recommendation: Bitcoin is a better long-term bet than gold.

In an appearance on Bloomberg Television, Novogratz — founder of Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd. — said that although he sees gold climbing above its record highs, Bitcoin is still the more worthy investment because it’s “harder to buy” than the traditional haven. He said about 25% of his net worth is tied up in the cryptocurrency.

“It’s only got a $20 billion market cap, while gold is over $10 trillion,” Novogratz said of Bitcoin. “So it’s got a long way to go to catch gold in terms of just adoption.” Still, he doesn’t recommend beginners put in more than 1-2% of their money into the digital currency.

Novogratz said Bitcoin had “crossed the Rubicon” on the question of whether it’s a good store of value. Now, more institutions and banks are considering how to get into the cryptocurrency, compared with a few years earlier when they viewed it more skeptically, he said. 

Barstool Sports founder Portnoy, meanwhile, was sold on the cryptocurrency after being pitched by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. In a video posted on Portnoy’s Twitter feed, the twin brothers — who founded crypto exchange Gemini Trust — say Bitcoin has the potential to replace gold as a store of value. Their reasoning? They claim that Elon Musk has plans to mine gold from asteroids.

In a tweet after his interview with the Winklevoss twins, Portnoy suggested he has bought $1 million worth of Bitcoin.

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, has been on a roller coaster in 2020. After sliding below $4,000, it’s zoomed up and is around $11,800. It’s seen further acceptance in the mainstream investment community, experienced a “halving” where the rate of Bitcoin created dropped by 50% as of May, and seen correlations with gold rise to records.

In the case of bullion, prices have been on a tear this year as central banks worldwide took steps to shore up ailing economies in the wake of the coronavirus crisis and investors sought a haven from the turmoil. The precious metal is up 28% this year to about $1,945, with Credit Suisse Group raising its bullion forecast for next year to $2,500 due to a “perfect storm” of factors.

— With assistance by Sonali Basak