Cathie Wood trims Bitcoin bull case as stablecoins take over some of its role

Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood has scaled back her most optimistic outlook for bitcoin, conceding that the rapid growth of stablecoins is taking over some of the functions she once expected bitcoin to fulfill.

“Stablecoins are usurping part of the role that we thought bitcoin would play,” Wood, CEO and chief investment officer of Ark, said Thursday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “So our bullish forecast out there is $1.5 million by 2030. Given what’s happening to stablecoins, which are serving emerging markets in a way that we thought bitcoin would, I think we could take maybe $300,000 off of that bullish case just for stablecoins."

"So watch that space. Stablecoins are scaling here much faster than anyone would have expected.”

The shift marks a significant revision to one of the industry’s most prominent bullish stances. While Ark Invest has long argued that bitcoin could act as both a store of value and a global settlement network, Wood now believes stablecoins — digital assets pegged to fiat currencies — are increasingly occupying that role.

Many companies and institutions are increasingly viewing stablecoins with optimism, recognizing new opportunities in their adoption. Major players have begun moving to meet this growing demand.

As reported by Coinspeaker earlier this year, Google launched an AI payments platform in September featuring stablecoin support, in collaboration with Coinbase and more than 60 major organizations. Around the same time, Cloudflare introduced NET Dollar, a USD-backed stablecoin designed to enable automated transactions between AI agents.

Still, Cathie Wood continues to view Bitcoin as “digital gold” — a reliable hedge against fiat currency depreciation, a role that dollar-pegged stablecoins cannot fully assume.

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