Cathie Wood, the CEO of ARK Invest, has built a reputation as one of the most outspoken advocates of the crypto industry. In recent remarks, she made it clear that while she sees value in Ethereum’s ecosystem, her conviction lies most strongly with Bitcoin. Her stance is rooted not only in her most recent statements, but in a consistent narrative she’s developed over the years.
Bitcoin Is The Pure Cryptocurrency
While speaking on The Master Investor podcast hosted by Wilfred Frost on YouTube, Cathie Wood reiterated her belief that Bitcoin is the pure cryptocurrency and described it as the global quantity rules-based monetary system. She noted that Bitcoin’s Layer-1 blockchain has never been hacked, and this sets it apart from other networks. She also expressed concern that Ethereum may lose dominance as Layer-2 solutions capture more activity and fees.
“In fact, Bitcoin owns the cryptocurrency space when it comes to pure crypto,” she said. “We think it’s going to be the biggest one by far,” she continued.
Despite her preference for Bitcoin, Wood has softened somewhat toward Ethereum in certain respects. She acknowledged Ethereum’s importance in decentralized finance (DeFi) and said it plays a very important role in the ecosystem. However, this importance could be undermined by other Layer-2 networks like Coinbase’s Base, which are going to be competing with one another.
Earlier Statements And Views On Crypto Assets
More recently, Cathie Wood praised Ethereum’s shift toward zero-knowledge proof (ZK) scaling techniques, even if she admitted she doesn’t fully grasp all the technical details.
“I can’t say I understand all of the details, but the Ethereum Foundation does seem to be proposing the right moves for scalability and privacy,” she said on the social media platform X.
At the same time, the Ark Invest CEO also noted some new protocols and on-chain derivatives platforms like Uniswap as ones to watch. She compared Hyperliquid to Solana’s early days and noted that it has promising potential.
Still, she has been clear that not every cryptocurrency earns her confidence. Wood has stated openly that she is not a believer in the vast majority of tokens circulating in the market. Instead, her conviction rests on a few core assets that she believes will dominate in the long term. In her view, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana stand apart as the big three.
“Those are the big three right now,” she said.
She acknowledged the importance of stablecoins but also noted that they do not belong in the same category as these leading cryptocurrencies.
Ark Invest, through its ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB), owns 43,799 BTC worth $4.91 billion. Cathie Wood has made strong, repeated predictions for Bitcoin’s future value. Back in May, she reaffirmed her belief that Bitcoin could trade as high as $1.5 million by 2030.
The company also maintains exposure to Ethereum, including positions connected to Bitmine Immersion, whose recent Ethereum acquisition spree has made it the biggest Ethereum treasury firm in the world.
