Galaxy CEO: Crypto investors should expect ‘much lower returns’

Crypto’s “age of speculation” is coming to an end, billionaire investor Mike Novogratz declared on Tuesday.

At an industry event this week, the Galaxy CEO argued that the combination of a brutal market downturn and Wall Street’s encroachment of crypto will drive more risk-averse investors to tap into digital assets.

Speculation will “be transposed or replaced by us using these same rails, these crypto rails, to bring banking [and] financial services to the whole world,” Novogratz said at the CNBC Digital Finance Forum on Tuesday, CNBC reported.

“And so, it’s going to be real world assets with much lower returns.”

Novogratz’s comments come at a critical juncture for the digital asset industry.

Instead of enjoying an unprecedented Bitcoin rally fuelled by US President Donald Trump’s pro-industry policies, the top cryptocurrency has seen its price slump to its lowest level in 16 months.

At the same time, financial giants like Goldman Sachs and Société Générale, as well as fintech firms like Robinhood and Stripe, are bolstering their businesses with blockchain solutions.

To Novogratz, these factors all point towards a dramatic seachange in crypto’s history.

The October wipeout

Crypto traders are no strangers to crashes.

In 2018, Bitcoin’s price plunged by some 80% between January and September. In the 12 months following the collapse of FTX in November 2021, the price plunged by over 70%.

This time, it’s dropped some 50% since its October all-time high — so far. The cryptocurrency market has lost about $2 trillion in value since October.

Galaxy has felt the brunt of the latest downturn. In the fourth quarter of 2025, its losses reached $482 million.

Even so, Novogratz said that things are different this time.

Not only did the October 10 crash wipe out $19 billion in leveraged positions over a 24-hour period, but it also nuked retail traders’ trust, he said.

“Crypto is all about narratives, it’s about stories,” Novogratz said.

“Those stories take a while to build, and you’re pulling people in … when you wipe out a lot of those people, Humpty Dumpty doesn’t get put back together right away,” he said.

Notably, the market collapse doesn’t mean the end of crypto as some industry detractors may hope, but a metamorphosis, Novogratz suggested.

Financial institutions will bring investors with risk tolerances different from those of traditional crypto investors, he said.

The tokenisation of stocks and other real-world assets will also have a different risk profile, Novogratz said.

Eric Johansson is DL News’ managing editor. Got a tip? Email him at eric@dlnews.com.