Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood called bitcoin (BTC) a “financial super highway,” emphasizing the important use cases for the cryptocurrency in emerging markets.
Wood, whose Ark Invest recently became one of the issuers of a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), ARKB, said the asset manager is focused on emerging markets and the macro environment worldwide, which has been “shocked” by the U.S. Federal Reserve’s increase in interest rates, she said during a fireside chat at the Friday Bitcoin Investor Day conference in New York.
“There are signals that not all is well in the world,” she said about countries like Nigeria, one of the biggest adopters of bitcoin because of the strong depreciation of the country’s currency. Because of that, Wood sees bitcoin as a risk-off asset and a risk-on asset.
Ark’s spot bitcoin ETF has become one of the more successful bitcoin ETFs among the ten funds issued in January.
Wood said that with more institutions entering this space, mathematically speaking, bitcoin’s price could easily rise above $3.5 million. However, she wouldn’t give a new specific price target.
“Bitcoin has miles to go,” she said instead and pointed out to her previous call of $1.5 million price target.