Novogratz's Galaxy Digital Will Start Trading on a Stock Exchange This Week

Cryptocurrency merchant bank Galaxy Digital is set to trade on Toronto's TSX Venture Exchange on August 1, Bloomberg reported Monday.

The cryptocurrency merchant bank, which was first announced in January, received final approval from Canadian regulators to begin trading, founder and billionaire investor Michael Novogratz told BNN Bloomberg Toronto. He called the process to receive permission "frustrating," citing the time it took to receive this approval.

He added:

"If I knew what I know now, knew the crypto markets were going to swoon as much, and it was going to take so long, I might have stayed private for another year or so and then gone public. But I don't think it's a mistake."

Galaxy Digital lost $134 million in the first quarter of 2018, largely due to declining cryptocurrency prices, the company announced in a quarterly earnings report last week, as CoinDesk previously reported.

The lengthy listing time came from the fact that Galaxy Digital chose to undergo a reverse takeover by merging with a TSX-listed shell company. Regulators examined the deal closely, going so far as to push back the final approval for listing from April to August, according to Bloomberg.

That being said, Novogratz believes cryptocurrency prices will rebound, predicting that bitcoin's price might soon see $10,000 again.

"I think we actually [are] in the bottom of the market. Part of this is the anticipation of an ETF that will hopefully get approved. If that ETF gets approved in a few weeks, we will go to $10,000. I don't think we get through $10,000 cause there is a big ceiling over there," he said.

Investors need more tools to trust the space before the price can go beyond $10,000, he said, explaining that "a lot of retailer investors got caught by bad prices last November and December."

"I don't think we will get through $10,000 until we get custody solutions announced implemented by trusted names," he added.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around the $8,000 mark, according to CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index.

Michael Novogratz mage via CoinDesk archives

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