Tag: Wood

  • Cathie Wood SEC may approve more than one Bitcoin ETF at once

    Cathie Wood SEC may approve more than one Bitcoin ETF at once

    cathie wood sec approve more bitcoin etf
    • SEC has to rule on ARK’s application for a Bitcoin ETF by August 13th.
    • Cathie Wood expects the financial regulator to extend that deadline.
    • A summary of what else she said in an interview with Bloomberg today.

    The U.S. SEC will likely delay ruling on application for a Spot Bitcoin ETF that Ark Invest registered on May 15th, says Cathie Wood.

    Highlights from Wood’s interview with Bloomberg

    Current deadline for the financial regulator to announce its decision on the said filing is August 13th. But the famed investor anticipates that the Securities and Exchange Commission will extend that deadline.

    Speaking with Bloomberg this morning, the Founder and Chief Executive of Ark Invest also alluded to the possibility that the U.S. SEC may approve a bunch of Bitcoin ETFs at once.

    I think SEC, if it’s going to approve a Bitcoin ETF, will approve more than one at once. Most of these will be same, and it’ll come down to marketing and communicating the message.

    Other than her investment management firm, eight others, including BlackRock Inc, have so far filed for such an exchange-traded fund.

    Wood is significantly invested in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust

    A Bitcoin ETF has been the front and centre of all crypto-related debates in recent months.

    In fact, the possibility of one that may make it more convenient to gain exposure to BTC has largely contributed to the 80% year-to-date rally in Bitcoin. Wood also said on Monday:

    We’ve been putting out our Bitcoin monthly for the last year. We’re now starting a Bitcoin brainstorming session. We’re trying to get the word out there that our research is deep.

    Note that the third largest holding in her Ark Next Generation Internet ETF at writing is Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. Wood refrained from commenting, though, on what she plans on doing with her investment in GBTC if a Spot Bitcoin ETF gets a nod from the financial regulator.

    Source link

  • US is losing the Bitcoin movement, says Cathie Wood

    US is losing the Bitcoin movement, says Cathie Wood

    Key takeaways

    • Cathie Wood has stated that she believes the United States is losing the Bitcoin movement due to the regulatory system. 

    • She stated that the collapse of FTX proved the concept of Bitcoin.

    • Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest is one of the major investors of Coinbase.

    US is being left behind, says Cathie Wood

    Cathie Wood, the founder of Ark Invest, has stated that the United States is behind the Bitcoin movement due to the regulatory system. She mentioned this while speaking at Fortune’s Most Powerful Next Gen conference last week.

    According to the Ark Invest founder, the centre of gravity of cryptocurrency is moving away from the United States. She cited the example of Coinbase receiving its licence to operate in Bermuda while also expanding its operations in Singapore. She stated that;

    “It would be nice if the U.S. were leading this movement, but we’re losing it, and we’re losing it because of our regulatory system.” 

    The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been clamping down on cryptocurrency companies in recent months. The regulatory agency issued a Wells Notice to Coinbase, indicating that it is looking into the activities of the crypto exchange. 

    Ark Invest continues to invest in Coinbase despite the regulatory climate in the United States. The investment management firm bought $8.6 million worth of Coinbase stocks last month after the crypto exchange sued the SEC. 

    FTX’s collapse proved the concept of Bitcoin

    FTX’s collapse last year was one of the biggest in the history of the cryptocurrency space. The collapse resulted in regulatory agencies like SEC focusing more of their attention on the crypto market. 

    The SEC maintains that the existing securities laws cover the crypto market, and there is no need for a new regulatory framework for the industry. 

    According to Cathie Wood, the collapse of FTX last year proved the concept of Bitcoin, similar to how the banking crisis this year did. She stated that the collapses indicate the dangers of centralisation in the financial system. She stated that;  

    “The reason it’s adopted is, first of all, many people like the idea of a decentralized, transparent, auditable monetary system. It was born out of the 2008/2009 crisis when people just lost all trust in financial services. And very interestingly, it took another two crises within the last year to prove the concept. FTX failed because it was centralized, opaque, and not auditable.”

    Bitcoin is up by more than 50% since the start of the year and is currently trading above $26k per coin.

    Source link

  • Crypto’s reputation in tatters, something Cathie Wood underestimates

    Crypto’s reputation in tatters, something Cathie Wood underestimates

    Key Takeaways

    • Cathie Wood says that institutions may take step back from crypto
    • She believes that they will allocate more to Bitcoin and Ether once they take time to study the crypto space
    • I believe she may be too optimistic, that the crypto industry has taken a battering and it may take longer to recover from

     

    Crypto is in a bad place right now.

    The most concerning development coming out of the last few weeks – and I think you will agree, there have been a few – is perhaps what it all means for the reputation of the industry going forward.

    What institutions are going to put Bitcoin on their balance sheet now? What pension funds are going to move into digital assets? FTX’s implosion (which I wrote about in detail here) is so high-profile and jarring that it feels delusional to expect anyone connected to traditional finance moving into the space. Is the damage irreparable?

    Cathie Wood hints at institutional stepback

    On this note, I thought Ark Invest founder Cathie Wood’s interview with Bloomberg last week was telling. Long known for her ultra-bullish views on all things Bitcoin, she even reiterated in the interview her confidence in her price prediction of Bitcoin, which she believes will be worth $1 million per coin by 2030.

    This was not a surprise, nor was it wholly unpredictable. Wood is adamant that Bitcoin will change the macro landscape long-term. She has positioned highly aggressively in the market, betting on risky tech stocks, Bitcoin and other assets that have struggled amid the transition to a new interest rate paradigm – as the performance of her flagship ETF shows below:

    I felt that something else was notable in her interview, however. “I do think, though, that the one thing that will be delayed is perhaps institutions stepping back and just saying, ‘OK do we really understand this?’”, she said.

    This hints at the big danger here. All through the pandemic, one of the most bullish things for Bitcoin was the trend of institutions pouring into the space. There was Tesla. There was ETF chat. There was Grayscale. There were public mining companies. There was Coinbase floating on the stock exchange. Hell, there was even El Salvador declaring Bitcoin as legal tender.

    But now that the low-interest environment has come to a close, and liquidity is getting sucked out of the economy, Bitcoin and crypto are facing something they have never had to face before – a pullback in the wider economy.

    Let us not forget that Bitcoin was launched in 2009, into the greatest bull market in history. It has not yet been tested amid a bearish macro climate, and hence this is all unprecedented. And against this test, crypto is straining.

    BlockFi, Celsius, Voyager, Three Arrows Capital, and all the other bankrupt firms, which are now joined by FTX, have also painted crypto in such a bad light that it is not surprising to hear analysts warn of pullbacks in institutional adoption. Wouldn’t it be more of a surprise if there wasn’t?

    Optimism

    I should note that Wood did add that she thought Bitcoin is coming out “smelling like a rose” from all this. While I certainly wouldn’t go that far – the entire industry is getting its reputation pummelled if you ask me – I see where she is coming from.  

    But while Bitcoin may have no counterparty risk, and hence theoretically is immune to the sorts of implosions we have seen at centralised companies like FTX, this is the real world. And in the real world,  in order for the average citizen to access it – not to mention institutions – centralised companies are needed.

    And until the greed, reckless leverage, naïve risk management and outright fraud (not naming names) in the industry ceases to exist, Bitcoin won’t gain any significant traction in the mainstream financial space. Institutions will be a lot warier of investing in the space now after so many high-profile blow-ups. Regulation is coming in strong. Returns are no longer through the roof.

    This is why I disagree with the optimistic tone that Wood set later in the interview:

    “And once (institutions) actually do the homework and see what has happened here”, Wood said, “I think they will be more comfortable moving into Bitcoin and perhaps Ether as a first stop, because they will understand it more”.

    For me, understanding Bitcoin more also comes with the comprehension that it continues to trade as an extremely high-risk asset, in what is now no longer a zero-rate environment. While the long-term vision may be for Bitcoin to be a reputable inflation hedge, that is not where it is right now – something asset managers will realise.

    Crypto has also put a sour taste in the mouth of anyone who has touched it this year. FTX is just the latest embarrassment for the industry, as the world watches on with a mixture of smugness, pity and disgust. Against this backdrop, the reputation of the entire space has taken a hammering.

    And as interest rates rise, a cost of living crisis surges and data continues to point towards a struggling economy, the crypto party will take a little longer to resume than Cathie thinks.  

    Source link