Key facts:
The potential for institutional investment in bitcoin is huge, says Cathie Woods.
Michael Saylor is fascinated by the Lightning Network and sees its adoption as critical.
Cathie Woods, director of Ark Investment, is convinced that bitcoin (BTC) has great potential as an institutional store of value. She bases her analysis on the fact that, despite growing adoption, cryptocurrency is still “a long way from being fully accepted.”
His words were spoken hours ago, during his participation in the Bitcoin 2022 Conference, which is taking place in Miami, United States.
“We expect that, in the next 8 years, approximately 2.5% of institutional assets will be assigned to bitcoin,” said the businesswoman and compared the situation with investments that were trending in the past: “It was real estate in the ’80s, it was emerging markets in the ’80s and ’90s… and I think now it will be cryptocurrencies starting with bitcoin.”
Furthermore, Woods dared to reveal a price prediction for bitcoin, put together by the company she runs: “We have a target price, for the year 2034, of more than USD 1 million per bitcoin.”
Woods was not alone on the stage of the Miami Beach Convention Center, but was accompanied by Michael Saylor, director of the MicroStrategy company. This is the company that has accumulated the most bitcoin in its treasury. have exactly 129,218BTC which, at the time of writing this article, is equivalent to more than USD 5,600 million, as can be seen in the CriptoNoticias Calculator.
Saylor said he was extremely optimistic about the future of Bitcoin, both at a technological level and about the behavior of the coin’s price in the medium and long term. In part, this is because, as he explains, in the last 12 months public opinion and many politicians have made a 180º turn in their thoughts on BTC.
As an example of that change of heart, mentioned the executive order that the president of the United States, Joe Biden, issued in early March on the regulation of cryptocurrencies. The fact that prohibition was not sought is seen as favorable by Saylor.
What we had was the President of the United States giving Bitcoin the green light. You have a memo that says (…): “I hereby direct all government agencies to educate themselves about bitcoin and figure out how to incorporate it into government.” I look back over the last hundred years of history and wonder when was the last time the President of the United States directed the government to adopt a new asset class? And the answer is: never.
Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy.
Not supporting the Bitcoin Lightning Network is like not supporting the Internet
Another aspect related to Bitcoin in which Woods and Saylor agree is the importance of the Lightning network. As CriptoNoticias Criptopedia explains, this is a second-layer protocol that favors instant micropayments with low fees in Bitcoin.
Woods calls the Lightning Network “the missing link” of Bitcoin. He calls it that because he considers that It is the bridge that allows cryptocurrency to be used as a store of value and as a means of payment.. “I think we’ll see an explosion of Lightning network-centric developments,” he says.
Saylor says he’s fascinated by that technology. For him, every bitcoin exchange should support the Lightning network. “If you don’t support Bitcoin, you don’t support the strong economy; but if you don’t support the Lightning network, it’s like you don’t support the Internet », he asserts.
Among the recent advances around the Lightning network, Taro can be mentioned, a development that, as reported by this medium, will allow the issuance, sending and transfer of tokens (including stablecoins) through this second layer of Bitcoin.