Mike Novogratz recounts buying the first 500,000 ETH from Vitalik Buterin

Novogratz discusses buying his first Bitcoins and Ethereum in an interview.

The billionaire and founder of the cryptobank Galaxy Digital, Mike Novogratz, spoke about buying his first Bitcoins and Ethereum in an interview with Nugget’s News.

Novogratz noted that he bought 500,000 ETH at $0.99 from Vitalik Buterin. According to the billionaire, the project team decided that, for the community, it would be good to have a buyer from Wall Street.

“At the last minute, he [Vitalik Buterin] raised the price for me from $0.98 to $0.99, because I had waited too long and the price rose,” said the founder of Galaxy Digital.

Novogratz learned about Bitcoin in 2012 from an acquaintance who had become interested in the asset and believed it would rise. The founder of the cryptobank described buying his first Bitcoins at around $95 as a speculative decision.

According to the billionaire, he phoned Dan Morehead of Pantera Capital and drew his attention to the first cryptocurrency. The latter purchased around 30,000 BTC.

“At that time we decided to buy 30,001 BTC, because we could not allow him to have more,” said Novogratz.

He also admitted that he planned to sell Bitcoin at $1,000 to buy a plane. His partner Peter Briger dissuaded him.

Earlier in October, Novogratz doubted that the first cryptocurrency would gain broad adoption as a means of payment. In his view, Bitcoin is currently used mainly as a store of value.

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