Galaxy Digital CEO ‘wouldn’t be surprised’ if Bitcoin hit $30K this quarter

Galaxy Digital Holdings CEO, Mike Novogratz, believes there's a chance Bitcoin (BTC) could return to $30,000 or above before the end of March.

According to a Feb. 15 Bloomberg report Novogratz spoke at a Bank of America conference the same day and said he would’ve been the “happiest guy” if 2022 ended with BTC at $30,000, but added:

“When I look at the price action, when I look at the excitement of the customers calling, the FOMO building up, it wouldn’t surprise me if we were at $30,000 by the end of the quarter.”

The prediction is much lower than others Novogratz has made in the past. The Galaxy CEO once believed Bitcoin could reach $500,000 by the end of 2027 if the United States Federal Reserve kept hiking interest rates.

Announcing #48 of Cointelegraph’s Top 100 influencers in Crypto and Blockchain@novogratz Former Goldman Sachs partner turned crypto mogul and founder of @galaxyhq, a big investor who acquired @ArgoBlockchain's mining facility, and recently won an auction to buy @GK8_Security. pic.twitter.com/ejpcFzOsYQ

— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) February 15, 2023

During Wednesday’s conference, Novogratz again made mention of rate hikes by Fed chair, Jerome Powell, who announced an interest rate hike of 25 basis points on Feb. 1. Novogratz said he didn’t expect the fed to change its tune anytime soon:

“What makes me skeptical that we can have the explosive, back-to-the-old highs this year is Chairman Powell. He’s really doing what he says he’s going to do, and I don’t see the Fed pivoting and cutting anytime soon.”

Alongside the Fed’s February rate hike, Powell indicated inflation in the U.S. had begun to slow, which saw Bitcoin shortly spike above $24,000 before declining below $22,000.

Related: US lawmakers reintroduce bill to remove roadblocks for crypto investments in retirement accounts

Following expected U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) January figures on Feb. 14, Bitcoin gained nearly 12% in the past 24 hours and hit over $24,700 — its highest level since mid-August 2022 according to Cointelegraph data.

Sentiment towards crypto also appears healthy, with the Crypto Fear and Greed index climbing nine points to 62 out of 100, moving the scale from “neutral” into “greed” territory.

The index hasn’t been above a score of 60 since mid-November 2021, before the price crash that kicked off the 2022 crypto winter.

Bitcoin will still need to gain roughly another 22% by Mar. 31 to reach Novogratz's predicted price.