While, more or less according to SEC chair Gary Gensler, the crypto industry right now looks about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike, or a fourth seamer in the Indian cricket team, none of this seems to be putting off Cathie Wood.
Come to think of it, though, the US crypto industry has proved pretty useful for filling the SEC’s coffers in humungous settlement fines.
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Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood, who was at a Morgan Stanley event in Sydney yesterday, is, as you probably well know, a bit of a tech-stock-loving human headline.
And Coinhead is nothing if not first with the second-hand news on said Wood headlines. So here’s a little breakdown of some of the more head-turning “you can’t be serious?” notions she’s gifted us this week.
Bitcoin to the $1 million moon by 2030, apparently
In an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday, Wood indicated that the “uncertainty and volatility” in the global economic landscape has actually increased her thesis of Bitcoin being an “antidote” to inflation and counterparty risks.
Wood has, in fact, reiterated her prediction that the OG digital asset will hit a lofty price target of US$1 million (cue Dr Evil memes) by 2030.
We’re a little disappointed in Wood, though. In September, 2021, she first went on public record with a lofty BTC prediction of US$500k. Then in January 2022, she made her first “Bitcoin to $1 million by 2030” crystal balling.
By now, we would’ve hoped for another doubling down and a US$2 million prediction within some random timeframe. But nah, a bit like the Fed’s likely to do in June, she’s hit the pause button.
Still, crypto-hopium crackpipe addicts won’t be too disappointed with a $1mill BTC within seven years. If the US dollar’s worth anything at all by then, that is.
Coinbase is still an ARK buy
Regarding the legal quagmire the world’s biggest crypto exchanges – Binance and Coinbase – now find themselves in over in the US of A, thanks to Gary Gensler and his SEC pals, Wood believes those two entities are built entirely differently.
They’re “not at all in the same bucket,” the CEO noted, emphasising that she believes the Binance situation in the US is far more serious than the SEC’s Coinbase lawsuit. Which she obviously would say, with Ark being a hefty investor in the COIN stock.
Wood also said: “we have the competition for Coinbase disappearing, so that’s a good thing longer term for Coinbase, adding that it was unfortunate that the SEC targeted Coinbase the day after taking action against Binance.
On Tuesday, Ark Invest bought 419,324 shares more of Coinbase’s COIN stock, worth about US$22 million. Bad timing? Well timed, perhaps, as it was completed after the news circulated that the SEC had filed a complaint against the exchange based around securities violations, and after the COIN stock had suffered as a result.
Wood on AI’s role in deflation
Lastly, here’s what Wood thinks about the inflation arc. She believes the power of artificial intelligence (AI) will turn around inflation and actually bring about deflation within a year.
Referring to AI as “the greatest innovation of all time”, Wood said that AI will be adopted “in every area”, bringing productivity to industries globally. She said, with this thesis in mind, that central bankers set on hiking interest rates to combat “sticky” inflation are wrong.
“The market has been treating this inflation surge, as a ’70s like episode; that we are in a mess. It’s not going away,” Wood said at the Morgan Stanley Australia Summit in Sydney on Thursday, as reported by The Australian.
“And we have been looking at this and say ‘No, absolutely not’,” added Wood, contending that the inflationary pressure the global economy is under can be put down to a confluence of pandemic and war-related supply chain issues.
“We’re going to see a much different monetary regimen going forward,” she predicted, “Why? Innovation is inherently deflationary. We’ll go negative and then by this time next year we’re all going to be talking about deflation, and the Fed will have not only pivoted, it will be running in the opposite direction.”
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