Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Invest, has doubled downwards on her prediction that the toll of Bitcoin (BTC) will grow tenfold in the next 5 years and said the growth of decentralized finance (DeFi), nonfungible tokens (NFT) and the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade has massively increased Ark'southward conviction in Ether'southward (ETH) hereafter.

Wood's prediction has Bitcoin's value to accept hitting almost $500,000 by 2026. She said that Ark Invest'southward future exposure to crypto was probable to be around 60% Bitcoin and forty% Ether.

Wood fabricated the comments Monday during a live stream at the Common salt Briefing in New York.

Her BTC price thesis is based on more companies calculation Bitcoin to their balance sheets and institutional investors allocating effectually 5% of their portfolios toward Bitcoin or other cryptos.

In her view, Bitcoin still remains the default currency of the crypto space, with Republic of el salvador deeming it legal tender and other countries of Central America signaling they may follow soon.

But she said Ether is condign more and more attractive as an investment thanks to the explosion in developer activity related to NFTs and DeFi.

"I'm fascinated with what's going on in DeFi, which is collapsing the cost of the infrastructure for fiscal services in a style that I know that the traditional fiscal industry does not appreciate right now," she said.

"Our confidence in Ethereum has gone up dramatically as we have seen the kickoff of the transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake."

Ark Invest manages several actively commutation-traded funds with a focus on disruptive innovation. It has significant investments in Coinbase and shares in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, and Woods has spoken ofttimes nigh her enthusiasm for Bitcoin.

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Wood said that from past experience, she believed no regulator, including new United states of america Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, would want to be blamed for preventing the next large tech breakthrough.

 "I'm very happy he understands crypto and the merits of Bitcoin in particular — he is a regulator, though, and he is a hardcore regulator."

Wood believes the SEC's threats to pursue legal action against Coinbase regarding the launch of a stablecoin yield production highlights that the crypto ecosystem is developing faster than the regulators take been able to proceed up with.

In her view, Coinbase shouldn't be particularly worried. Woods highlighted how in October 2022, Canada'southward largest Bitcoin and digital asset fund manager received a favorable ruling from the Ontario Securities Commission to offer a publicly traded Bitcoin fund.