Ark’s research indicates that bitcoin’s ‘network fundamentals’ remain healthy, so it can continue its long-term rise.
Cathie Wood’s Ark Investment Management sees bitcoin going to the moon, saying it could break the $1 million barrier by 2030.
That would represent an increase of 26 times its recent level of $38,094
“As bitcoin’s market capitalization hit an all-time high in 2021 [over $1 trillion], Ark’s research indicated that its network fundamentals remained healthy,” Ark analyst Yassine Elmandjra wrote in a report.
“Bitcoin’s market capitalization still represents a fraction of global assets and is likely to scale as nation-states adopt [it] as legal tender.”
Institutional investors are moving into bitcoin, Elmandjra says. “Bitcoin’s institutional holder base appears to be broadening after the launch of more regulated products and adoption by corporations and nation-states.”
As of November, according to Elmandjra, the top five publicly-disclosed institutional holders were:
1. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, an exchange-traded product, with 654,200 bitcoin (recently worth $24.92 billion).
2. Block.one, a blockchain software company, with 140,000 bitcoin (recently worth $5.33 billion).
3. Microstrategy, a business software company, with 121,044 bitcoin (recently worth $4.6 billion).
4. Coinshares XBT Provider, an exchange-traded product, with 48,466 bitcoin (recently worth $1.85 billion)
5. Tesla, the electric car maker, with 42,902 bitcoin (recently worth $1.63 billion).
Bitcoin’s cumulative transfer volume increased by 463% in 2021 to $13.1 trillion, Elmandjra said. As result, she said, bitcoin’s annual settlement volume has surpassed Visa’s payments volume.
Meanwhile last year, “bitcoin activated Taproot, its biggest base-layer protocol upgrade since SegWit in 2017,” Elmandjra said. “Along with the introduction of Schnorr signatures, Taproot could increase the privacy and efficiency of Bitcoin transactions.”
