It says a lot about the ever-bullish outlook of Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood that she predicted Bitcoin would hit $1.2 million in 2030 and it was, in fact, a downgrade.
This feature is part of CoinDesk List of the most influential of 2025.
Cathie Wood made her forecast for the BTC price in November 2025, slightly revising the target downward from $1.5 million based on the explosive rise of stablecoins, which she believes can usurp some of bitcoin’s value as a transactional instrument.
However, his impact on cryptocurrencies goes beyond his notoriously bullish predictions. Ark’s spot bitcoin ETF, which lists in partnership with 21Shares, is the third-largest such product in the US, behind only the runaway market leaders provided by asset management giants BlackRock and Fidelity.
Wood’s optimistic outlook for the cryptocurrency industry is evident in holdings of some of Ark’s largest ETFs. The company’s $8.4 billion Innovation ETF counts cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase among its largest holdings, as do two of Ark’s other largest ETFs by net assets.
The 2025 initial public offerings (IPOs) of stablecoin issuer Circle and cryptocurrency exchange Bullish (CoinDesk’s parent company) also generated significant investments from Ark.
Through their ETFs, Ark and, by extension, Wood, who also holds the title of chief investment officer (CIO), can represent a north star for understanding which disruptive technologies are likely to provide the most lucrative high-growth opportunities.
