Controversial altcoin XRP is however "proving" itself, but Bitcoin (BTC) remains the recommended investment choice in the cryptocurrency world, Mike Novogratz says.

In a series of tweets on Feb. 6, venture capitalist Novogratz, who is also CEO of the cryptocurrency merchant banking concern, Galaxy Digital, delivered pocket-size praise of XRP and Ripple, the company which owns more of information technology than anyone else.

Novogratz "surprised" by XRP performance

"This year the broader alt market place, including $XRP has outperformed $BTC.  This has surprised me," he wrote.

"That said, I come across more and more large accounts getting educated and set up up to exist accumulators of $BTC and believe on a risk-adjusted basis information technology'due south the best place to bet on crypto."

Novogratz was posting a day later on making thinly-veiled criticism of XRP and Ripple at TD Ameritrade'southward National LINC 2022 conference in Florida.

Forecasting XRP would "underperform immensely" in 2022, his comments garnered criticism from Ripple, with crypto news outlet CoinDesk quoting a company source who said Novogratz "doesn't empathise how Ripple manages its stake in XRP."

Kudos for Ripple and Garlinghouse

As Cointelegraph reported, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse recently raised eyebrows when he suggested the visitor would seek to prevent XRP from operating in a gratuitous market. Major shareholders commandeering the supply were not desirable, he told mainstream media last month.

Novogratz nonetheless praised both Garlinghouse and Ripple's activities, adopting a tone that appeared to contradict the previous day's skepticism.

"GLXY is a large investor in Ripple Labs. I would like to meet them do well. @bgarlinghouse has done a not bad job as CEO," part of another tweet read.

He added that he personally had been "virtually solely long $btc for the past fifteen months," and on Midweek predicted $10,000 was incoming for BTC/USD.

XRP maintained higher levels above $0.28 at press time, amid an altcoin surge which saw some major tokens proceeds every bit much every bit 25% overnight.

Earlier in the week, derivatives giant BitMEX began offering an XRP perpetual swap, leading to firmly natural language-in-cheek comments from CEO Arthur Hayes.