KEY POINTS
- Wood said she will vote for the candidate who will 'do the best job for our economy'
- ARK Invest has jointly issued a spot Bitcoin ETF with 21Shares
- Wood previously said Bitcoin is the equivalent of digital gold
Cathie Wood, a well-known figure in the financial space and the CEO of U.S. investment firm ARK Invest, revealed over the weekend that she is planning to vote for former President Donald Trump, triggering a wave of reactions on X (formerly Twitter) about her declaration.
"I am going to vote for the person who's going to do the best job for our economy. I am a voter when it comes to economics, and on that basis, Trump," she told financial content creator Kevin Paffrath during a Las Vegas conference when asked "Trump or Biden?"
"So, Art Laffer describes the first three years of the Trump presidency as the best in U.S. economic history – not the last one because of COVID, but – and I would agree," she added. Laffer is a prominent American economist and was the economic advisor to the 2016 Trump campaign.
BREAKING: Cathie Wood, one of the most influential people in the business world just publicly announced that she'll be voting for Trump and that he had the best economy in history
— George (@BehizyTweets) June 23, 2024
"Trump or Biden?"
"I am a voter when it comes to economics. And on that basis, Trump."… pic.twitter.com/czTAORZy8d
Her statements come as the Republican presidential candidate has increasingly been vocal about his now-positive views of the crypto industry that he was previously doubtful of.
Some significant names in the broader blockchain space have shared their thoughts on Wood's announcement, considering how the ARK CEO is known in the digital assets industry as a pro-crypto financial leader.
World-renowned artist DALEK, who has his own nonfungible token (NFT) collections, didn't have anything to say, but dropped two "rock and roll" emojis to seemingly show his support for Wood's decision.
The X handle of the Bebe (BEBE) memecoin hailed Wood as "an important investor" in the crypto industry, and Dogecoin (DOGE) and Tesla investor who goes by Pablo said Wood and Trump were a "perfect match."
Because Trump supports Crypto.
— BEBE (@X_BEBEeth) June 24, 2024
And @CathieDWood is an important investor in Crypto.
Perfect match pic.twitter.com/WLOCDDe81B
— Tesla Pablo 🔋 (@pablo9948967714) June 24, 2024
On the other hand, there were also several X users who slammed Wood for her declaration, with one saying ARK Invest was considered a "wealth destroyer" over the last decade.
The said user was referring to a February report by Morningstar Inc. that stated ARK's U.S.-listed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) wiped out $14.3 billion in shareholder value over a 10-year period.
Meanwhile, Wood has been a believer in the potential of cryptocurrencies, especially in Bitcoin, the world's top digital asset by market value. ARK has launched a spot BTC ETF jointly with 21Shares and as of Sunday, the ETF held over 200 Bitcoins, as per data compiled by investor HODL15Capital.
UPDATED global Bitcoin ETF tracker👇 1 new addition this week pic.twitter.com/8kwLHAxSBY
— HODL15Capital 🇺🇸 (@HODL15Capital) June 23, 2024
Wood said earlier this year that "Bitcoin is the equivalent of digital gold – gold is an A1 trillion dollar asset out there and we do believe that Bitcoin will get a nice slug of that." She added that ARK believes most emerging markets will use a digital asset in the long run as an insurance against wealth confiscation.
