Star investor Cathie Wood has a message of reassurance for Bitcoin investors amid the din of ever harsher regulatory rhetoric: officials won’t be able to make the largest cryptocurrency go away.
Tough talk against digital tokens from China and calls for greater scrutiny in Europe and the U.S. Have contributed to a slump in Bitcoin, but Wood said the virtual currency is “already on its way and it’ll be impossible to shut it down.”
Officials “will be a little more friendly over time” toward cryptocurrencies out of fear of missing out on the innovation provided by the sector, Wood said at the Consensus 2021 conference organized by CoinDesk.
The most high-profile recent regulatory broadside has come from China. A push to rein in cryptocurrency mining there was partly triggered by concern over a surge in illicit coal extraction to deliver the power needed by the server farms underpinning Bitcoin. Billionaire Elon Musk also highlighted environmental risks in suspending Bitcoin payments at Tesla Inc.
Wood, founder of Ark Investment Management LLC, said that focus on green factors likely led to a pause in institutional buying of Bitcoin. She has previously said she expects the token to surge longer term.