Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood has revised down her most bullish forecast for Bitcoin, acknowledging that the rapid rise of stablecoins is taking over the role she once thought it would play. “Stablecoins are taking away some of the role that we thought Bitcoin would play,” Wood said Thursday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “So our bullish forecast is $1.5 million by 2030. Given what is happening with stablecoins serving emerging markets in the way we thought Bitcoin would do, stablecoins alone could probably take $300,000 out of that bullish case. So watch that space. Stablecoins are expanding here much faster than anyone expected.” Wood’s comments mark a notable adjustment to his long-term view on Bitcoin, one of the industry’s most high-profile bullish predictions. Ark Invest has long argued that Bitcoin has the potential to serve as both a store of value and a global payments system, but Wood now sees stablecoins (digital tokens pegged to traditional currencies) usurping some of that function. “Emerging markets are huge in this regard,” she says. “U.S. financial institutions are starting to look at new payment methods with stablecoins at their core, which is a very interesting development.”Earlier this week, Bitcoin fell below $100,000 for the first time in more than four months amid a broad decline in risk assets. This flagship cryptocurrency last traded at $102,510. BTC.CM= YTD Mountain Bitcoin YTD Still, Wood remains deeply bullish on Bitcoin, pointing to growing adoption by institutional investors as a strong driver of long-term value. “Bitcoin is a global monetary system, a usher in a new asset class, and a technology all rolled into one,” she said. “Institutions are just getting started in this space. We are just getting started, so we have a long way to go.” Even if he dialed back his bullish claims slightly, Wood emphasized that the broader digital asset ecosystem is expanding, not contracting. “I think the whole space is bigger,” she said. “This is, you know, the world’s monetary system is actually digitized without government oversight and it’s very private. So this is a really big idea.”
