Notorious Bitcoin bull and seasoned investor Mike Novogratz no longer stands by his USD 10K Bitcoin price prediction for 2018, instead suggesting that institutional investors may push it to that total early next year.

Novogratz’s comments came in a Bloomberg Television interview where he defended his previous prediction, saying the cryptocurrency process has been a learning curve with everything taking ”longer than expected.”

He compared the whole crypto ecosystem to a fourth grader being expected to materialize into a graduate. One of the issues Novogratz pointed to is the need for internal committees and testing to solve custody problems that leave investors ”screwed” if anything illicit happens to their assets.

The conversation turned to Fidelity Investment’s announcement of a ”world-class custody solution,” to quote Novogratz, aimed at institutional investors. Considering cryptocurrencies as bare financial instruments, this class of investors has been held back from entering the market due to uncertainty surrounding the storage of cryptographic keys that allow access to the assets

Fidelity is offering them insurance that they can place their bets with cryptocurrency knowing that they won’t lose their money in an illicit way.

Combined with Goldman Sachs’ crypto custody solutions in the works, Novogratz believes that ”slowly but surely institutional investors are becoming more comfortable with the whole asset class.” As he reasons it, the institutional flow of capital can be expected in Q1 of 2019, or early Q2.

Being a Bitcoin trader himself, Novogratz has shared that right now, he is going long. In defense of Bitcoin’s mid-week stumble last week, he argued that it is still a young asset that certainly is not without volatility. Meanwhile, he stands firm on his belief that it is a valuable store of value, particularly in countries facing economic crises such as Iran and Venezuela.

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