Galaxy Digital founder Mike Novogratz: My LUNA tattoo will be a constant reminder that venture capital "needs humility"

Mike Novogratz, the billionaire founder of crypto asset manager Galaxy Digital, told his followers his Luna-inspired tattoo would serve as a reminder of humility in the venture capital world.

In the wake of the recent LUNA/UST debacle crisis, Novogratz wrote an open letter on Wednesday, telling his followers: "My tattoo will be a constant reminder that venture capital requires humility."

Novogratz first showed off his wolf-themed tattoo to his 461,000 Twitter followers on Jan. 5, when he enthusiastically demonstrated his support for the now-collapsed Terra ecosystem.

Terra's UST stablecoin, which relies on an algorithm to maintain its peg to the U.S. dollar, experienced an unprecedented plunge last week, with the price of its sister token LUNA dropping from $60 per unit to $0 in less than 72 hours. The crash wiped around $40 billion from the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

"The crash has eroded confidence in cryptocurrencies and DeFi, and whenever funds are lost in such a sudden manner, people want answers," Novogratz said in the letter.

He said that despite last week's "heartbreaking" market chaos, the crypto industry looks stronger than ever and won't go away anytime soon.

"This does not mean that the cryptocurrency market will bottom out. The crypto market needs to go through a cycle of restructuring, redemption, consolidation and waiting for investors to regain confidence in the market."

He explained that Galaxy Digital used balance sheet capital to invest in LUNA in the fourth quarter of 2020, and clarified that the company's finance department never used UST.

"The original intention of our team to invest in LUNA is to promote the expansion of blockchain-native payment systems."

According to an update from Galaxy Digital on May 13, as of May 11, the firm is expected to post a net comprehensive income loss of $300 million, which would bring partners' capital to $2.2 billion, down from March 31 12%.

Pantera Capital, one of Terraform Labs’ original investors, revealed today that it had cashed out approximately 80% of its LUNA investment long before TerraUSD’s crash. According to Pantera partner Paul Veradittakit, the firm managed to turn $1.7 million into about $170 million.

It’s not just Novogratz getting tattoos, the popularity of cryptocurrency-themed tattoos is also on the rise, with Google searches related to crypto tattoos surging 222% in 2021. According to Crypto Head, more than 900 people around the world have tattooed themselves with a Bitcoin (BTC) “B,” while Dogecoin (DOGE) and Ethereum (ETH) tattoos are also on the rise.