Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Investment, doubled her forecast that Bitcoin price will increase 10-fold over the next 5 years, saying that the growth of DeFi, NFTs and Eth2 upgrades has strengthened Ark’s belief in the future of ether have. .

Wood’s forecast will value Bitcoin at nearly $ 500,000 by 2026. She says Ark Investment’s future exposure to crypto is likely to be around 60% Bitcoin and 40% Ethereum.

Wood made the remarks on Monday during a live stream at the SALT conference in New York.

Their BTC price argument is based on the fact that many companies include Bitcoin on their balance sheets and institutional investors invest around 5% of their portfolios in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

In their view, Bitcoin remains the default currency of the crypto space, with El Salvador viewing it as legal tender and other countries in Central America signaling that they could soon follow suit.

However, she said that Ethereum is becoming increasingly attractive as an investment thanks to a boom in NFT and DeFi-related developer activity.

“I am excited about what is happening at DeFi that is driving down the cost of financial services infrastructure in ways that the traditional financial industry does not currently appreciate,” she said.

“Our confidence in Ethereum has increased dramatically as we see the beginning of the transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake.”

Ark Investment manages a number of actively traded funds with a focus on disruptive innovation. Having made significant investments in Coinbase and stakes in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, Wood has often spoken of her passion for Bitcoin.

Related: Bitcoin Bull Run triggers a BTC price forecast of 180,000 US dollars before the institutional “fireworks”

Wood said that she believes from previous experience that no regulator, including new SEC chairman Gary Gensler, wants to be held responsible for preventing the next big technology breakthrough.

“I’m glad he understands crypto and the value of Bitcoin in particular – but he’s a manager and he’s a tough manager.”

Wood believes the SEC’s threats to take legal action against Coinbase in connection with the launch of a for-profit stablecoin product show that the crypto ecosystem is growing faster than investor management can keep up.

From their point of view, Coinbase shouldn’t be too worried. Wood highlights how Canada’s largest bitcoin and digital asset fund manager received a positive decision from the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) in October 2019 to offer a publicly traded bitcoin fund.