Cathie Wood Reiterates a $1M Price Target on Bitcoin at Miami Conference
2022.04.08 12:26
By Carjuan Cruz
Investing.com – Cathie Wood reiterated her bullish stance on Bitcoin at the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami this week, as the Ark Invest founder renewed her call for the cryptocurrency to reach $1M by 2030 in a presentation yesterday.
“Bitcoin is the first open-source, global private digital rules-based monetary system in the history of the world. It’s a very big idea,” noted the investor at her “The Future is Bright” conference, a talk alongside MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) CEO Michael Saylor, another prominent Bitcoin bull.
Embedded in her forecast for Bitcoin is a view that the cryptocurrency is a haven from the current wave of global inflation.
“If inflation is an issue, Bitcoin is a great hedge against inflation…it is a hedge against counter-party risk,” said Wood.
Wood cited research that 70% of Bitcoin investors hold their position for the long term (more than six months), amounting to approximately 13.5 million units out of 19 million crypto units. She also pointed out that Bitcoin, the leader among cryptocurrencies with a capitalization of $830 billion, has increased its liquidity tenfold. “That’s just a taste of what’s to come,” she said.
However, the investor noted that Bitcoin’s price is still volatile, attributing this to how new the cryptocurrency still is in the market. She argued that this is what has kept institutional adoption of cryptocurrency from growing faster.
“It has improved, but it’s still a long way from being fully accepted,” she said, referring to the position of traditional investment banks and large corporate investors regarding Bitcoin.
“What we’re seeing with bitcoin and traditional institutional investors…is that (bitcoin) is very volatile, and that’s scary for investors. This would be very risky to get involved in, it’s a new asset class.'” The investor estimates that fear will be overcome, and that in eight years 2.5% of institutional assets will be allocated to Bitcoin, a driving force to her price target.
A Change of Regulatory Vision
Ark’s CEO estimates that the U.S. view on Bitcoin and the sector in general has changed in favor of cryptocurrencies, so she is positive about the regulation planned in this country and its effects.
“Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has changed her tune. It’s a positive thing. A year ago, her first comments on Bitcoin were about money laundering and environmental damage, and now it’s different,” Wood said.
“I’m seeing the politics around Bitcoin changing dramatically, and this is bipartisan,” she added.
Saylor for his part argued that given the signs of acceptance of Bitcoin in the U.S. government’s statements, Bitcoin believers should be taking a victory lap.
Bitcoin is trading about 0.75% higher over the past 24 hours, though 5% lower than a week ago, and down 8.25% year to date.
Ark Invest’s main ETF, the ARK Innovation ETF (NYSE:ARKK), is down 33.8% year to date and 48% over the past year as its holdings struggle with post-pandemic adjustments. Ark’s ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (NYSE:ARKW), which had a 6.5% weight in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (BTC) (OTC:GBTC) as of year end, is down 30% year to date.
MicroStrategy shares are down 15% year to date and 29% over the past year.
