This is a segment from the Forward Guidance newsletter.
Galaxy Digital reported its third quarter earnings this morning, though founder Mike Novogratz’s remarks on the election stood out to me most.
“The last quarter seems a little less relevant right now given that this is kind of a whole new world,” the CEO noted.
He was, of course, alluding to Donald Trump’s win and the impact the president-elect’s pledges, if fulfilled, could have on the crypto industry. Not to mention the flood of pro-crypto Congress members elected Tuesday.
Galaxy’s stock, which is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, rose about 25% Wednesday, and went up another 16% Thursday, as of 2 pm ET.
Novogratz did not publicly support Trump. “I was actually on the other side,” he noted on today’s call.
“But I was always pro-crypto, and I thought, let’s do the best we can to have a bipartisan agreement,” the exec said.
Novogratz noted the crypto-friendly people Trump will have around him. Outside of JD Vance, he mentioned RFK Jr., Peter Thiel and Howard Lutnick. Here’s a reminder of what Lutnick, the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, said about bitcoin in September.
The Galaxy CEO said he is expecting “one piece of good news every week” for the next one or two years.
Among those could be new appointments at the SEC, FDIC and OCC, he said — adding that he expects SAB 121 will be “repealed very quickly.”
That SEC accounting guidance is what many say has kept a number of traditional players out of the crypto industry. President Joe Biden vetoed Congress’ bipartisan resolution that would have invalidated SAB 121.
“When you bring in the [BNY Mellons] and the State Streets as custodians, [and] when you allow TradFi competitors to own crypto on their balance sheet, it is going to unleash a tsunami of institutional participation,” Novogratz said.
