Benzinga - by Adam Eckert, Benzinga Staff Writer.
Ark Invest's Cathie Wood has long been bullish on the cryptocurrency space. She's still optimistic that Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) could trade somewhere between $1 million and $1.5 million.
What To Know: Bitcoin has more than doubled since the start of the year as optimism surrounding a potential spot Bitcoin ETF continues to rise. Wood believes the rally in Bitcoin is just getting started.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal this week, Wood predicted that Bitcoin would trade up to $650,000 per coin, but that's just her base case. In a bull case scenario, the world's largest cryptocurrency could be worth between $1 million and $1.5 million per coin, she said.
"Last year, a lot of people thought that the bankruptcy of FTX, Celsius and Three Arrows was going to be the end of Bitcoin. And quite the opposite happened," Wood said.
More and more people are starting to understand that FTX was a centralized organization, lacking transparency. Bitcoin is the exact opposite of that, she said.
Bitcoin is decentralized and has a network of developers watching over it, preventing fraud like what we saw with FTX, she explained.
"When FTX went down, the bitcoin blockchain didn’t skip a beat, the Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) network didn’t skip a beat. It was as though it didn’t happen," Wood told the Journal.
Check This Out: EXCLUSIVE: Crypto Industry Insider Predicts Bitcoin Spot ETF In Early 2024 — Why It's 'Not Entirely Priced In'
The Ark Invest CEO suggested that a spot Bitcoin ETF could help push prices higher. It would make it easy for the average person to gain exposure to the asset, she said.
An ETF would be regulated and offer protection. It would also be much less complicated than using Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ: COIN) to buy Bitcoin, she said.
Coinbase is one of Ark's biggest holdings. At the time of writing, it was actually the top holding in the Ark Innovation ETF (ARCA:ARKK) with a 9.06% weighting.
The crypto exchange is currently facing an SEC lawsuit claiming the company is an unregistered broker, but Wood isn't worried.
The SEC has been on the losing side of several similar cases and if Coinbase were to lose, she believes the company would appeal the ruling all the way to the Supreme Court, given its importance.
"We need real legislation if this truly is a new asset class, so that’s really what the question is here," Wood told WSJ.
$BTC Price Action: Bitcoin is up approximately 119% year-to-date. It was last up 0.64% over a 24-hour period at $36,386 at the time of writing, per Benzinga Pro.
Read Next: Cathie Wood Slams Portfolio Managers' Index-Based Investing As She Highlights Existential Threat Google, A Top Holding, Faces From LLMs
Watch Cathie Wood’s recent interview on “The Raz Report” below.
Photo: Ark Invest and Shutterstock
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