Who is Mike Novogratz? Net Worth, Career, and Personal Life

Mike Novogratz Biography

Early Life and Education of Mike Novogratz

Mike Novogratz was raised in Alexandria, Virginia, as the third child of seven to his parents. He was active in sports since childhood and was the state of school wrestling runner-up while studying at Fort Hunt High School. Novogratz was also first team All-Ivy League in both 1986 and 1987 years and qualified for National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). 

Novogratz graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts degree. During his college years, he also served as Princeton Wrestling captain. Even though Novogratz played in the NCAA Wrestling championship, he was eliminated in one of the rounds. 

Mike Novogratz worked as a helicopter pilot for a short period in the New Jersey Army National Guard. Then, he started his career at Goldman Sachs as a short-term bond salesman in 1989. Later, he served the company in various roles in different locations and was eventually elected partner in 1998. He was even the President of Goldman Sachs Latin America and finally left one year after the company went public. 

Mike Novogratz as the CEO of Galaxy Digital

In 2002, Mike Novogratz joined Fortress Investments and was serving the company when it went public in 2007. The company sold 8% of shares in its IPO which are worth $600 million. Novogratz worked in several roles in this firm as well as a hedge fund manager, principal, and director of Fortress Credit Corporation. However, they shut down the company when Novogratz and his colleagues lost millions of dollars.

Later, Mike Novogratz founded Galaxy Investment Partners which offers a wide range of financial solutions to access digital assets. Novogratz scheduled to start his Galaxy Digital Assets Fund in 2017, but postponed it because of unfavorable market conditions. Even though the company lost around $136 million in cryptocurrency trading, it still offered $80 million for the Bitfury firm.

As time passed, losses of the Galaxy firm also increased to 554 million in early 2022 which was 182 million in 2021. Despite having losses, Novogratz believes that everyone should hold BTC and ETC as they act as index funds in the crypto space. He also has a venture firm called Galaxy Ventures and the top projects in its portfolio are 1inch, Polygon, Fireblocks, etc.

Mike Novogratz’s Personal Life

Mike Novogratz and his wife Dora Sukey Caceres have four children and they own a home in Amagansett, New York City. He even bought a duplex house worth $12.25 million in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood.

Being a wrestler since his childhood, he has been a booster for the US National Wrestling Team. He received several awards and titles such as the “USA Wrestling Man of the Year” and “Outstanding American”. Novogratz campaigned for the return of the wrestling sport when the Olympic Committee cut the sport from the 2020 Summer Games.

Novogratz became a member of a secretive society of wealthy financial executives, Kappa Beta Phi in 2008. In 2022, Novogratz boasted that he is the only guy in the world who has both Bitcoin and Luna tattoos. But just a few weeks later, Luna stablecoin UST lost its dollar peg which led to the complete crash of the cryptocurrency.

Novogratz is also a philanthropist and established Novogratz Family Foundation along with his wife. Through this organization, they provide education, criminal justice forum, and other services. He even helps low-income individuals with free bail assistance through an NGO called The Bail Project.

Mike Novogratz’s Net Worth

As of February 2024, Mike Novogratz’s net worth is $2 billion, which witnessed a significant dip from his previous net worth value of around $8.5 billion during the crypto bull market. The Terra Luna crash is believed to be the major reason for his net worth to dip from $8.5 to $2 billion.

Mike Novogratz was listed as one among the richest people in cryptocurrency by Forbes in 2018. When the stock price of Fortress firm decreased, his wealth dropped to $500 million. Despite having fluctuations in his wealth, he became a prominent individual in the financial and crypto industries.

In one of his interviews, Novogratz stated that 20% of his net worth is in Bitcoin and Ethereum. He even admitted that he made $250 million from cryptocurrency in 2016 and 2017.