KEY POINTS

  • ARK Invest recently hosted the Big Ideas Summit 
  • It predicted Bitcoin would be valued at $1 million per unit by 2030
  • Last year, the ARK founder predicted Bitcoin would be worth $500,000 by 2026

Bitcoin, the world's number one cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization, has had a troublesome start to the year. But, ARK Invest, an American investment management firm founded by Cathie Wood, forecasts that the cryptocurrency could be worth $1 million or more per unit by 2030.

The top crypto was trading at $37,700.02 as of 5:24 a.m. ET, according to Coinmarketcap data.

At the Big Ideas Summit hosted by ARK Invest, the company's in-house analyst Yassine Elmandjra forecast how a single Bitcoin unit could hit and exceed the $1 million mark in value.

ARK Invest's model projects Bitcoin's market cap to rise to $28.5 trillion by 2030. BTC's current market cap, following the slide in prices last two weeks, is about $700 billion.

Bitcoin fell to its lowest level in a month as investors shifted out of the crytocurrency following the release of the Federal Reserve minutes
Bitcoin fell to its lowest level in a month as investors shifted out of the crytocurrency following the release of the Federal Reserve minutes AFP / Ozan KOSE

“Bitcoin’s market capitalization still represents a fraction of global assets and is likely to scale as nation-states adopt [it] as legal tender,” Elmandjra noted in the firm’s "Big Ideas 2022" outlook report.

Although, El Salvador, the first country to make BTC legal tender, was urged by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Tuesday to stop using the crypto as legal tender citing "large risks."

ARK Invest's team further noted that its estimate of a $28.5 trillion market cap is more conservative than ambitious. "If Bitcoin does hit $1 million, it will still only represent a fraction of global asset values."

The ARK Invest team believes cryptocurrency takes market share as a global settlement network. The investment firm's research revealed that Bitcoin's transfer volume skyrocketed by 463% last year with annual settlement volume exceeding the annual payments volume of Visa, the world's largest payment processor.

The investment firm also highlighted advancements in technology like the Taproot upgrade, as well as the Lightning Network, to help Bitcoin scale. Moreover, the firm believes institutional ownership of the number one cryptocurrency would expand.

ARK founder Cathie Wood, a star investor and a raging Bitcoin bull, predicted last year that a unit of Bitcoin would have $500,000 value in 2026.

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