ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood said on CNBC Thursday that bitcoin (BTC), the world's largest cryptocurrency by market value, could reach $1,500,000 in price by 2030 in a bullish scenario, raising her estimate by 50% from a previous prediction of $1 million.
"We think the probability of the bull case has increased with this SEC approval. This is a green light," said Wood on CNBC. On Wednesday, spot bitcoin ETFs were finally approved in the U.S. after a decade of trying. The Securities and Exchange Commission gave the green light Wednesday to key filings from the markets seeking to list the groundbreaking products.
The ARK Invest CEO also said a bear case would see the price rise to $258,500 and a base case of $682,800. ARK backed up the previous $1 million price prediction by pointing to a higher hashrate, long-term holder supply, and addresses with a non-zero balance compared to the prior downturns. The SEC's approval of the spot ETFs has likely added to the bullish thesis.
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ARK Invest is among the asset managers approved by the SEC to roll out bitcoin ETFs, which started trading on Thursday. On Thursday, the price of BTC briefly topped $49,000 for the first time since December 2021. However, it gave up all its earlier gains and is now trading near $46,322.
ARK isn't the only one expecting a massive jump in bitcoin prices. Standard Chartered Bank recently predicted that the price of bitcoin could rise to levels closer to $200,000 by the end of 2025, comparing the bitcoin ETF to the first U.S.-based gold exchange-traded product, which launched in November 2004. Following this, the price of gold rose over 4x in the seven years it took for gold ETP holdings to mature.
By Lyllah Ledesma