Novogratz says LUNA tattoo is a constant reminder that investing ‘requires humility’

Fry Electronics TeamMay 19, 2022
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Novogratz says LUNA tattoo is a constant reminder that investing 'requires humility'

Mike Novogratz, the billionaire founder of crypto asset management firm Galaxy Digital, has told his followers that his LUNA-inspired tattoo will serve as a reminder to stay humble in the world of venture capital investing.

Following the fallout from the recent LUNA/UST collapse, Novogratz wrote an open letter on Wednesday, telling his followers, “My tattoo will be a constant reminder that risk investing requires humility.”

It was on January 5th that Novogratz first showed off his wolf-themed tattoo to his 461,000 Twitter followers to show his support for the now-collapsed Terra ecosystem.

Terra’s UST stablecoin, which relied on an algorithm to maintain a peg to the US dollar, collapsed last week, sending the price of its sister token LUNA from $60 per token to $0 in less than 72 hours climb. The collapse wiped approximately $40 billion from the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

“The collapse has damaged confidence in crypto and DeFi,” Novogratz said in the letter, “whenever money is lost in such an abrupt manner, people want answers.”

He said that despite last week’s “heartbreaking” market pandemonium, the crypto industry looks stronger than ever and wasn’t going away anytime soon.

“This does not mean that the crypto market will hit a bottom and go straight back up. It will require restructuring, a redemption cycle, consolidation and renewed confidence in crypto.”

He explained that Galaxy Digital invested in LUNA in Q4 2020 using balance sheet capital and clarified that the company’s finance department never used UST.

“Our team’s initial thesis for investing in LUNA focused on expanding blockchain-native payment systems.”

According to an update from Galaxy Digital released on May 13, the company expects a net comprehensive income loss of $300 million as of May 11, taking partners’ equity to $2.2 billion — down from 12% from March 31.

Pantera Capital, one of Terraform Labs’ original investors, announced today that it had paid off approximately 80% of its LUNA investment well before the TerraUSD collapse. According to Pantera partner Paul Veradittakit, the company managed to turn $1.7 million into approximately $170 million.

It’s not just Novogratz getting inked – crypto-themed tattoos have surged in popularity significantly, with Google searches related to crypto tattoos up 222% in 2021. According to data from Crypto Head, more than 900 people worldwide have inked themselves with the Bitcoin (BTC) “B,” while Dogecoin (DOGE) and Ethereum (ETH) tattoos are on the rise.