Despite the recent slump, one of Wall Street’s largest names is still leaning into crypto—seeing innovation and profit in its future.
Key Details
- ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood is one of the most successful investors on Wall Street and one of the leading voices to listen to regarding what direction the market is headed.
- She said in a January 12 blog post that digital wallets and blockchain technology are two of the most important technologies shaping the future.
- “After the most difficult year ever in the equity market for innovation-based strategies, we just sent our clients this letter highlighting the breakthrough technologies that already are transforming the world,” says Wood.
- Disruptive and innovative technologies have advantages in challenging times, and Wood appears to be leaning into crypto, going as far as to say digital wallets could replace credit cards, The Coin Republic notes.
Why It’s News
Last year was a poor one for cryptocurrency, with the collapse of half a dozen major exchanges —including FTX, Terra, Luna, Three Arrows Capital, Voyager Digital, Celsius, and BlockFi—the decline of the NFT market, the crypto winter devaluation of major currencies, and significant evangelists like Peter Thiel and Mark Cuban getting cold feet.
Even so, Wood’s firm recently bought 74,792 shares in Coinbase, which has seen its valuation increase since. It has seen a month-to-date increase of 40.2% from its post-FTX slump. Crypto is naturally volatile as an investment, but as the January Bitcoin surge has shown, it can be very resilient thanks to the loyalty of its investors, who see potential in crypto as a decentralized alternative to traditional finance.
Notable Quotes
“Digital wallets—allowing users to transact on their smartphones, digital wallets are replacing cash and credit cards. They overtook cash as the top transaction method for offline commerce in 2020 and accounted for ~50% of global online commerce volume in 2021,” says Wood.
“Blockchain technology—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.”
