Cathie Wood, CEO of US-based investment management firm Ark Invest sees public blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum coming out ahead after the ongoing market crisis subsides.
In a letter dubbed “What The Market Overlooked in 2022”, sent to clients on Jan 12, Wood highlighted the breakthrough technologies that are already transforming the world, praising blockchain and digital wallets.
The crypto sector has faced various headwinds since Terra collapsed in mid-2021. More than six leading crypto firms have folded since then, with some like Voyager and BlockFi filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy. The collapse of FTX two months ago dealt a further blow to the sector, destroying billions of US dollars worth of user assets and threatening the future of more crypto firms.
This, however, did not interfere with the substratum of blockchain technology which continues to operate as intended, according to Wood.
“Despite the recent collapse of crypto exchange FTX, underlying public blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum have not skipped a beat in processing transactions, highlighting that their transparent, decentralized, and auditable ledgers could be a solution to the fraud and mismanagement associated with centralized, opaque institutions,” she wrote.
The pundit also fronted Digital wallets as the next big thing, noting that they were replacing cash and credit cards. A recent report by California-based market research and consulting firm Grand View Research estimated the global crypto market wallet market to grow to about $48.27 billion in 2030 from 2022 estimates of about $8.42 billion. Crypto wallets help users keep their crypto assets safe and secure by storing their private keys. They also allow users to send, receive and spend cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Bitcoin. Digital wallets overtook cash as the top transaction method for offline commerce in 2020 and accounted for ~50% of global online commerce volume in 2021.
Wood Buys More Crypto-Related Shares
Following the FTX collapse, the share of trading volume on decentralized exchanges, which allow investors to trade without a central intermediary spiked 37%. Centralized crypto exchanges such as Binance and Crypto.com also saw a drastic increase in outflows as investors took flight in fear of an FTX-like incident.
Wood continued to express hope in the crypto sector, scooping more Coinbase shares. According to her, unlike other exchanges, “the fallout from Terra/Luna’s and FTX’s collapses propelled Coinbase’s share of fiat-based exchange volume (excluding Binance International) by 18 percentage points, from 22% in June to 40% in December.”
On Thursday, Ark Invest purchased 74,792 shares of Coinbase (COIN) for around $3.28 million, bringing its total holdings to 8.596 million shares valued at around $408.7 million based on Coinbase’s last closing price of $47.55 on Thursday. That stash now represents 2.92% of the firm’s entire portfolio allocation.
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