Since the US banking system has been on the loose, many have shared their views on how this will affect crypto. A large group thinks it will lead more investors and companies to crypto. The CEO of the large ARK Invest, Cathie Wood, also expects that the banking crisis will “attract more institutions and investors” to bitcoin (BTC).
ARK Investment Management CEO Cathie Wood says the behavior of the Bitcoin’s price through the latest banking turmoil will attract more institutions and investors https://t.co/2d8cT7SX3n pic.twitter.com/Eaymh05lhq
— Bloomberg Crypto (@crypto) March 21, 2023
Institutional interest is increasing
Wood bases her opinion mainly on how the bitcoin price has behaved against stock markets in response to the news about the unstable banks in recent weeks. “The fact that Bitcoin moved very differently from stock markets was very instructive,” said Wood.
The official BTC price forecast for 2030 from ARK Invest is between $1 and $1.5 million per bitcoin. This is based on the idea that on average each company will invest between 2.5 and 6.5 percent of their assets in bitcoin. While we’re certainly not there yet, the current commotion surrounding US banks seems to be putting bitcoin back in the spotlight.
Also according to the CEO of crypto exchange Bittrex, Oliver Linch, institutional adoption is an important topic. However, he does not think that the banking crisis is behind this, the interest was already there. However, the current banking crisis seems to have accelerated the need for crypto adoption.
“The big talking point of the past bear market has been institutional interest in crypto. Every major bank has a crypto department. Not only for trade but also for collaborations with crypto companies.”
ARK sells COIN shares
Despite these statements, ARK Invest has over yesterday 160 thousand shares of Coinbase (COIN) sold. The investment company is benefiting from the recent price increase of the share. The stock rose more than 35 percent last week. At the beginning of this month, ARK bought more than 350 thousand COIN shares. In total, ARK Invest owns nearly ten million shares of COIN with a gross value of $840 million.
Coinbase went public in April 2021, around the time bitcoin hit a new all-time high. During the IPO, the value of COIN was $342. Currently the value is ‘only’ 84 dollars.