Cathie Wood has 'high conviction' in bitcoin and ethereum but isn't trading in any NFTs

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Cathie Wood has 'high conviction' in bitcoin and ethereum but isn't trading in any NFTs
Bitcoin vs. Ethereum.Alain Pitton/NurPhoto via Getty Images and Dado Ruvic/Reuters
  • In a Tuesday forum on the Public app, Cathie Wood said she believes in bitcoin and ethereum.
  • Bitcoin started a revolution, and ethereum became the predominant smart contract platform, she said.
  • The Ark Invest boss said her firm isn't actively trading digital collectibles known as NFTs.
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Between bitcoin and ethereum, Ark Invest boss Cathie Wood said she believes in both.

When asked which she has more faith in, the founder and chief executive officer of Ark said the two cryptocurrencies are incomparable and "aligned to different revolutions" in digital assets.

"We maintain high conviction in both," Wood said in a Tuesday forum on the Public trading app that was liked by approximately 10,000 investors.

With regard to bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, she said it has set off revolutions for decentralized finance and the future internet, known as Web 3.0, the successor to Web 2.0.

"Bitcoin is the most profound application of public blockchains, the foundation of 'self-sovereign' digital money," she wrote in the forum.

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Amid the market rout in January, cryptocurrencies, too, faced a selloff. Bitcoin traded at $38,405.60 on Tuesday — a far cry from its November all-time high around $69,000 in November.

As for ethereum, Wood said it "emerged in 2021 as the predominant smart contracting platform" for DeFi and digital collectibles known as NFTs, and it is likely to capture a portion of the $123 trillion global money supply.

When asked if Ark would get into NFTs, she said, "While ARK has conviction in DeFi and the utility of NFTs for various use-cases, including gaming environments, we do not actively trade NFTs as of today in any of our strategies."

NFTs, which are generally pieces of art tied to blockchain technology, surged in popularity last year with sales topping $41 billion. They are usually minted on the ethereum blockchain, but some crypto experts, like FTX boss Sam Bankman-Fried, see other blockchains with cheaper gas fees taking over ethereum's market dominance.

Wood became a star stock picker with a cult-like following after her exchange-traded funds soared in 2020. The following year, her firm's flagship fund, the Ark Innovation ETF, slumped. It has continued its downward trend in the new year, putting its one-year losses at 47%.

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On Public — the Robinhood-competitor with social features like guest forums and a Twitter-like feed — Wood said Ark focuses on long-term investing with a five-year horizon, which she said "requires conviction."

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