Cathie Wood has seen the future and Bitcoin is big a part of it.
The chief executive of Ark Investment Management shared her thoughts about the world's largest cryptocurrency by market cap on Feb. 1 during a segment on CNBC's "Squawk Box."
Host Andrew Ross Sorkin reminded Wood of a conversation the pair had about two years ago where the famed money manager predicted Bitcoin would go to $500,000.
"Are you still in the same place?" Sorkin asked.
"Yes, we are," Wood responded. "In fact, we're a little higher than that in our base case for the year 2030 and, in our bull case. Much higher."
Wood mentioned Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, who faces a series of criminal and civil charges, including fraud against FTX customers and investors.
"Sam Bankman-Fried didn't like Bitcoin at all," Wood said. "And he didn't like it because of its decentralization and transparency. And what companies went under? They were the highly centralized, non-transparent, opaque companies, so FTX, Celsius, Three Arrows Capital... "
Like FTX, Celsius and Three Arrows Capital were crypto exchanges that went under.
Transparency is Taking Hold
"If you look at what happened to Bitcoin, the network, and Ethereum, the network, they really didn't skip a beat," Wood said. "All transactions were completed, all smart contracts opened and closed."
"So I think that starting with '08-'09," she added, referring to August 2009, "which is when Bitcoin really debuted, and even more so after the crypto fallout this past year, the collapse in many companies, this idea of transparency and decentralization is taking hold and bitcoin and Ethereum are the two best manifestations of that in the crypto world."
Bitcoin rallied in January and was up to $23,449.06 at last check, according to the data firm CoinGecko.
Several commenters on Twitter responded harshly to Wood's view of Bitcoin and Ethereum.
“Guys, hate to break it to you, but it's February 1st. Not April 1st,” one person tweeted. “No one knows who Bitcoin's creator is and Ethereum is based on disguised whales, fraud and deception. You're not fooling anyone with this narrative.”
"Why do let people on your show that lie?" another commenter asked. "Don't you have a responsibility to the public to release the truth? Bitcoin is controlled by two miners, not decentralized. Ethereum is a joke dumpster fire with disguised whales. Sort yourself out. Embarrassing."
Wood has been buying and selling some of her favorite names over the past few weeks in a stream of trading. On Jan. 30, her flagship Ark Innovation EFT (ARKK) added 301,953 shares of Teladoc (TDOC).
The online health service tumbled over the past 12 month amid the slump in e-commerce companies.
Wood's purchase raised the ire of CNBC host and contributor Jim Cramer, who tweeted that Wood "not fazed by anything including her own poor performance or the poor performance of this stock."
