$BTC: ARK Invest CEO explains what could make the price of Bitcoin go through the roof

In a recent interview, Catherine Wood, Founder, CIO and CEO of ARK Investment Management, LLC (aka “ARK” or “ARK Invest”), shared her thoughts on Bitcoin.

On March 23, during a conversation with Dr. Art Laffer, her mentor, former professor and advisor to her firm, Wood said that if people’s trust in traditional global monetary systems wanes, they may increasingly turn to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. This shift could send the price of Bitcoin skyrocketing. As she reminded listeners, there are only two million more Bitcoin units to be minted.

Wood stated,

“[Bitcoin is] playing the role of store of value right now. And if the global monetary systems right now, shall I say, lose confidence in people in general, there will be a shift to more crypto from a store of value point of view, absolutely. What will happen then is the price of Bitcoin – remember that there are only two million more to be minted – the price of Bitcoin will go through the roof.”

Wood also highlighted Bitcoin’s limited supply, which is limited to 21 million units. Currently, the annual inflation rate for Bitcoin is 1.8%, which represents the amount mined each year. However, this rate will halve within a couple of years to below 1% and continue to decline until maximum access is reached.

With 19 million Bitcoin units already in circulation, Wood pointed to the recent rise in price from $19,000 to nearly $29,000 as evidence that people believe it has value. She expressed faith in the developers, coders and programmers who designed Bitcoin’s mathematical structure, arguing that they are unlikely to change it, further reinforcing Bitcoin’s status as a store of value.

On February 1, during a conversation with Andrew Ross Sorkin, co-anchor of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” she was asked if she still believes the Bitcoin price will be $500K.

Wood replied:

“Yes we are. In fact, we are slightly higher than that in our base case for the year 2030. And in our bull case, much higher. If you look at what’s happened in the last year, Sam Bankman-Fried actually didn’t like Bitcoin at all, and he didn’t like it because of its decentralization and transparency.

“And what the companies went under, they were the highly centralized, non-transparent opaque companies, so FTX, Celsius, Three Arrows Capital. If you look at what happened with Bitcoin, the network, and Ethereum, the network, they didn’t really skip a beat. All transactions were completed. All smart contracts opened and closed.

“So I think starting in 2008-2009, which is when Bitcoin really debuted and even more so after the crypto fallout of the last year – the collapse of many companies – this idea of ​​openness and decentralization is taking hold, and bitcoin and Ethereum are two best manifestations of that in the crypto world.“