Cathie Wood is the founder and CEO of ARK Investment Management (ARK Invest), one of the most prominent asset management firms investing in disruptive innovation, and one of the highest-profile institutional advocates for Bitcoin.
ARK Invest
Wood founded ARK Invest in 2014, focusing on thematic investing in areas including genomics, autonomous vehicles, fintech, space exploration, and blockchain technology. ARK’s flagship fund, ARKK, gained widespread attention in 2020–2021 for its outsized returns driven by growth and technology stocks.
Bitcoin and Crypto
Wood has been one of the most vocal institutional advocates for Bitcoin, consistently making long-term price predictions based on her team’s research models. ARK Invest published influential research reports analyzing Bitcoin’s potential as a store of value and portfolio diversifier.
In January 2024, ARK Invest (in partnership with 21Shares) launched the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB), one of the first spot Bitcoin ETFs approved by the SEC. The approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs was widely viewed as a watershed moment for institutional crypto adoption.
Investment Philosophy
Wood’s investment approach emphasizes long-term exposure to exponential growth curves in technology sectors. She has argued that Bitcoin represents a new asset class with the potential to capture significant value from gold, bonds, and fiat currency as a store of value. Her research team at ARK models Bitcoin price targets in the hundreds of thousands of dollars based on various adoption scenarios.