Cathie Wood: ARK Invest Forecasts Bitcoin Price to Surpass $1 Million Sooner than Expected
Crypto friendly American asset manager Ark Invest sees Bitcoin’s price hitting $1 million before 2030, according to CEO Cathie Wood in a recent interview with the New Zealand Herald.
Hard-talking Bitcoin maxi Wood already eyed a projection of $1.5 million earlier this year in an interview with CNBC. At the time, Wood said a “bear case” would still result in a price rise to around $258,500.
Cathie Wood makes her $1.5 million bull case for the price of bitcoin by 2030. https://t.co/r34iRNA9bG pic.twitter.com/chWWDH7ioE
— CNBC (@CNBC) January 11, 2024
Wood gave that estimate on January 11, 2024, the day the US Securities and Exchange Commission approved 11 spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF) to begin trading.
Wood’s previous projections had eyed $1 million as a Bitcoin’s price target and it’s looking like she has returned to this position.
Still, in her latest interview, Wood implied that $1 million by 2030 might even be a conservative estimate.
“That target — it was before the SEC gave us the green light, and I think that was a major milestone, and it has pulled forward the timeline,” she explained.
She then named Morgan Stanley, Merryl Lynch and Bank of America as financial heavyweights that haven’t yet started dealing with Bitcoin, implying that it’s only a matter of time before they join the gravy train: “No platform has approved Bitcoin yet, so all of this price action has happened before they approve it, and so we haven’t even begun,” she said.
“Our target is above that; it’s well above that,” she teased, declining to give a figure but stating that “with our new expectations for institutional involvement, the incremental price that we assume for institutions actually has more than doubled.”
Bitcoin at $1 Million This Year?
Considering Cathie Wood helms one of the most crypto-bullish asset managers, and given that Ark Invest already has a spot Bitcoin ETF on exchanges and is eyeing up a spot Ethereum ETF too, it’s fair to say she has a pro-crypto bias.
In spite of that, Bitcoin is currently trading at a new all-time high and it looks like there is plenty more mileage left for a potential 2024 bull run.
That’s because two potentially pivotal price-driving events are coming up. One on April 19, and the other on May 23.
In April is the quadrennial Bitcoin halving. The halving is a pre-determined event in Bitcoin’s code that cuts miners’ rewards in half leading to a supply squeeze in the issuance of new Bitcoin.
Historically, this has driven rallies.
Then in May, the SEC is expected to give a verdict on VanEck’s application for a US spot Ethereum ETF. Based on historic precedent with Bitcoin, several analysts, including Standard Chartered, say that the SEC is likely to approve a round of applications on this date.
The approval of Ethereum ETFs almost looks like a foregone conclusion since Bitcoin ETFs started trading. If the SEC were to reject them, applicants may appeal and win, as Grayscale did with its Bitcoin ETF last year.
Given that Ethereum is crypto’s most commercially important blockchain, ETFs off the back of Bitcoin’s halving could drive all leading cryptocurrencies to new heights.
