ARK Investment Management CEO Cathie Wood believes Bitcoin (BTC) could soon be nearly as valuable as gold, according to a recent interview she conducted with Brazilian financial markets information firm, InfoMoney.
As good as gold?
“Gold is a trillion-dollar asset out there, and we do believe that Bitcoin will get a nice slug of that,” Wood said.
As of this week, Bitcoin ETFs surpassed silver ETFs to become the second-most valuable commodity currently trading in the United States.
At present, Bitcoin ETFs boast over $26 million assets under management (AUM), while silver ETFs hold less than half of that at $11 million AUM. Gold ETFs still significantly outweigh both the aforementioned ETFs combined with $95 million AUM.
Bolstering their BTC
Wood’s comments come nearly a week after the SEC approved several spot Bitcoin ETF applicants, including the Ark 21 Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB). On Tuesday, the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) purchased $15.9 million worth of shares from ARKB, in what may be seen as a move to bolster the spot bitcoin ETF amidst tough competition.On Wednesday, the firm followed suit by selling $15 million of their ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) shares and using it to purchase $15 million worth of ARKB.In the week leading up to the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs, shares of BITO soared over 10% with assets amassing to over $2 billion.However, future-based funds are currently experiencing outflows following the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs, with BITO’s assets back down to $1.7 billion.As of Friday afternoon, ARKB was trading at $41.14, down 12% since its initial launch on January 11th.
Wood’s critique of Gensler
However, it appears not everyone is thrilled about the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs.“While we approved the listing and trading of certain spot bitcoin ETP shares today, we did not approve or endorse bitcoin,” Gensler said in a statement shortly following the mass ETF approval. “I’d note that the underlying assets in the metals ETPs have consumer and industrial uses, while in contrast bitcoin is primarily a speculative, volatile asset that’s also used for illicit activity including ransomware,money laundering, sanction evasion,and terrorist financing,” the SEC Chair continued.Wood publicly expressed her disappointment in Gensler’s statement shortly after it was released in an interview with Bloomberg Radio.“He just denigrated the whole crypto space,” Wood said. “I couldn’t believe it.”
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