Cathie Wooden: Bitcoin ETF Approval Unlikely Till Market Cap Rises to About $2T

Ark Funding Administration CEO Cathie Wooden mentioned she doubts U.S. regulators will green-light a bitcoin exchange-traded fund earlier than the unique cryptocurrency’s market cap hits $2 trillion.

“The flood of demand needs to be glad so it’s going to need to get effectively over a trillion {dollars} – $2 trillion, I believe, earlier than the [U.S Securities and Exchange Commission] will really feel snug about” a bitcoin ETF, Wooden mentioned at Tuesday’s ETF Tendencies Huge Concepts occasion.

Bitcoin’s market capitalization hovered a tick below $600 billion at press time Tuesday.

Wooden was bullish on bitcoin’s prospects below Gary Gensler, the previous CFTC commissioner and MIT digital foreign money professor who has been nominated to steer the SEC by President Joe Biden. Wooden referred to as Gensler “very professional bitcoin” and praised the SEC’s crypto savvy management.

Gensler, who would undoubtedly grow to be probably the most crypto educated SEC chair if confirmed, has nonetheless described himself as “somewhat bit heart minimalist on Bitcoin.” He’s extra of a “heart maximalist” about blockchain applied sciences and sensible contracts, nevertheless.

Wooden’s Tuesday presentation additionally featured some daring projections about bitcoin’s worth potential ought to institutional and company adoption developments proceed. Citing MicroStrategy’s bitcoin-first treasury coverage, Wooden mentioned that if each S&P 500 firm invested 1% of their property in bitcoin the worth would improve by $40,000.

“Institutional allocations between 2.5% and 6.5% might influence bitcoin’s worth by $200,000 to $500,000,” learn one slide deck.