Michael Novogratz

Early life

Raised in Alexandria, Virginia, Novogratz is the third of seven children of West Point football lineman and 1958 Knute Rockne Award (best lineman) winner Robert, Sr. He attended Fort Hunt High School. Novogratz was state of Virginia high school wrestling runner-up, and then Princeton wrestling captain. He qualified for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) wrestling championships in both 1986 and 1987 (both at 150 lbs). Novogratz earned his A.B. in economics at Princeton.

Career

After a stint in the New Jersey National Guard that included service as a helicopter pilot, Novogratz began his career with Goldman Sachs in 1989. he joined the firm as a short-term bond (money market) salesman. He took a salesman position for Goldman in Tokyo in 1992, Among the positions that he held at Goldman were president of Goldman Sachs Latin America and the head of fixed income, currencies and commodities risk in Asia. Novogratz claims his departure from Goldman, a year after the firm went public, was due to the consequences of "partying like a rockstar".

In March 2002, During the IPO, the company sold an 8% share to the public for $600 million. Before assuming his roles at Fortress as principal and director of Fortress Credit Corporation in 2006, he served as Co-Chief Information Officer of Macro Funds at Fortress Investment Group LLC. Although the Fortress' domain included both hedge funds and private-equity investments, Novogratz and his fellow Princetonian Briger ran the hedge funds. Although the stock price had risen to $35 at its IPO, by December 3, 2008, it dipped to as low as $1.87 after withdrawals from Novogratz' Drawbridge Global Macro fund were shut off. Fortress folded after Novogratz and his colleagues lost hundreds of millions betting on the Swiss franc and Brazilian assets.

Cryptocurrency

Novogratz founded Galaxy Investment Partners, a cryptocurrency investment firm, in 2018. Originally scheduled to start his Galaxy Digital Assets Fund on December 15, 2017, he shelved plans because he "didn't like market conditions."

Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd. is one of the few cryptocurrency companies required to publish financial results. In the first nine months of 2018, the company lost $136 million in cryptocurrency trading. In 2017, Galaxy Digital contributed to an $80 million funding round for technology company Bitfury.

Galaxy losses widened to 554 million in Q2 of 2022 following a 182 million dollar loss for the past year.

He stated in 2017 that 20% of his net worth was in Bitcoin and Ethereum. He says he made $250 million from crypto currency from 2016-2017. At a 2022 cryptocurrency conference, Novogratz boasted that he was "only guy in the world that’s got both a Bitcoin tattoo and a Luna tattoo".

Other positions

New York Governor David Paterson appointed Novogratz to sit on the Hudson River Park Trust's board of directors in 2010.

Personal life

In 2006, he bought Robert De Niro's $12.25 million duplex in Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood. They also own a home in Amagansett, outside New York City.

He has been a booster for the U.S. National Wrestling Team and an official spokesman for USA Wrestling. He was named the 2010 USA Wrestling Man of the Year and an Outstanding American by the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2007. When the International Olympic Committee cut Olympic Wrestling from the 2020 Summer Games, he campaigned for the sport's return.

Net worth

In September 2007, Novogratz was listed at #317 on the Forbes 400 with a net worth of $1.5 billion. He was ranked 962 on the March 2008 Forbes list of world billionaires with a net worth of $1.2 billion. The same year, he became a member of Kappa Beta Phi, a Wall Street "secret society" made up of wealthy financial executives. By 2012, after the decline of Fortress' stock price, his net worth had shrunk to $500 million. As of 2021, he owned $4.8 billion of cryptocurrency. That year, he appeared as himself in an episode of Billions. As of January 2026, his net worth is $7 billion, according to Forbes.

Family

His sister Jacqueline Novogratz is founder and CEO of Acumen Fund, while his brother Robert Novogratz is a designer who has been profiled in the Bravo television series 9 by Design.

References

References

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3. Clark, Patrick. (2012-06-13). "Fortress Chieftain Mike Novogratz Wrestles with Olympians, Youth…and Wall Street". [[New York Observer]].
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5. (2012-08-20). "Ivy League Honors". [[Princeton University]].
6. (2012-06-28). "Princeton Wrestlers At The NCAA Championships". [[Princeton University]].
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11. Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss, Lawrence Delevingne, Ross Kerber. (2017-11-14). "Big money is coming to bitcoin: ex-Fortress executive Novogratz". Reuters.
12. Erik Schatzker, Saijel Kishan. (22 December 2017). "Novogratz Halts Hedge Fund, Says Bitcoin May Drop to $8,000". Bloomberg.
13. (28 November 2018). "Mike Novogratz's Crypto Trading Desk Lost $136 Million in Nine Months". Bloomberg.
14. (6 November 2018). "Billionaire Novogratz Invests in Cryptocurrency Firm Bitfury".
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16. (26 September 2017). "A Crypto Fund King Says Bitcoin Will Be the Biggest Bubble Ever". Bloomberg.
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