Ark Invest's Cathie Wood Doubles Down on $500,000 Bitcoin Prediction and Discusses Crypto Regulation – Markets and Prices

Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Investment Management, expects the price of Bitcoin to be more than $500,000 in five years, which is more than 10 times its current value. She also shared her opinion on cryptocurrency regulation and Coinbase's problems with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Cathie Wood's Ark Invest Predicts $500,000 Bitcoin

Cathie Wood, the CEO of Ark Investment Management (Ark Invest), discussed Bitcoin and crypto regulation in an interview at the SALT conference on Monday. Wood is also the company's founder and CIO.

She was asked what Bitcoin will be worth in five years. Wood replied: “If we are right and companies continue to diversify their money into something like Bitcoin, institutional investors will start investing 5% of their funds in… Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies,” then:

We believe the price will be 10 times today's price, so instead of $45,000, [it would be] over $500,000.

Wood also commented on cryptocurrency regulation. Based on her meeting with state, local and federal regulators, she described: "Our working assumption from the beginning was that ... no regulator wanted to be held responsible for preventing the next major technology breakthrough in the United States."

She continued that she is "really happy" that SEC Chairman Gary Gensler "understands crypto and, in particular, understands the benefits of Bitcoin." Nonetheless, she noted, "He's a regulator, though, and he's a hardcore regulator."

The CEO of Ark Invest then spoke about the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase problem with the SEC regarding its lending product and noted that she was “shocked” to hear that Coinbase had received a Wells notice. "Are you kidding? They haven't even released the product yet. What is this?" she exclaimed.

Coin base revealed last week that it had received a Wells Notice from the SEC. However, the exchange said it did not know what issue the SEC had with its Lend product. “We do not know why… We have no explanation from the SEC,” the exchange wrote.

“I think what this Wells Notice does is call out to regulators that we need to discuss these things because this is happening very quickly and I think we're going to get courts involved in the system,” Wood said, adding:

This happened in Canada. A company called 3iq sued the regulator there and won in court, allowing them to issue Bitcoin ETFs [exchange-traded funds], and also closed in funds and Ether.

She concluded: "So I'm starting to think that Coinbase doesn't mind at all and if you saw the reaction of the stock, it barely moved."

When asked which cryptocurrency she would invest in if she could only choose one, Wood said she wouldn't use Bitcoin "because countries now consider it legal tender." Ark Invest's executive refers to El Salvador, where the country Bitcoin law came into force do on September 7th BTC legal tender alongside the US dollar.

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