Cathie Wood bets big on $28 trillion crypto future
Last year, every time a dip occurred, I knew my feed will blow up with “Cathie Wood buys the dip” headlines.
But Wood has been unusually quiet this year when it comes to buying her favorite crypto-linked stocks.
However, she is anything but silent on crypto.
In fact, her latest crypto outlook may be one of the boldest yet.
In a report released on Jan. 21, Wood’s investment firm ARK Invest laid out a vision of a digital asset market that could swell to $28 trillion by 2030, with Bitcoin taking the lion’s share.
Related: Cathie Wood backs down on $1.5M Bitcoin price prediction
According to ARK’s projections, the combined market for digital currencies and smart contract networks could grow at an annual rate of roughly 61% over the rest of the decade.
That growth would push total crypto market capitalization to $28 trillion, a figure that would firmly place digital assets alongside the world’s largest asset classes.
ARK expects Bitcoin (BTC) to dominate that future.
The firm believes Bitcoin alone could account for around 70% of the total market, growing from nearly $2 trillion today to roughly $16 trillion by 2030, implying a compound annual growth rate of about 63%.
The rest of the market, ARK says, would be led by smart contract platforms such as Ethereum and Solana, which underpin decentralized applications, tokenization, and on-chain finance.
ARK’s confidence in Bitcoin has remained relatively steady, with adjustments driven by two key assumptions.
The first is its “digital gold” status. After gold’s market cap surged more than 60% in 2025, ARK increased Bitcoin’s total addressable market by 37%.
The second is Bitcoin’s role as a safe haven in emerging markets. ARK reduced that assumption by 80%, citing the rapid adoption of stablecoins in developing economies.
Even so, Bitcoin remains the backbone of the forecast. It is valued more for its monetary premium as a store of value than for traditional cash-flow metrics.
For smart contract networks, ARK estimates market capitalization could reach $6 trillion by 2030, supported by annualized revenues of nearly $200 billion.
Still, the firm expects only 2-3 layer-1 platforms to capture most of that value.
So far, 2026 has been anything but smooth for Bitcoin. It seems like the king coin takes two steps forward before taking three steps back.
It price has been choppy, briefly pushing past $97,000 in mid-January before sliding again.
At press time, Bitcoin was trading at $89,053.
Macro pressure has played a role. Renewed tariff threats from U.S. President Donald Trump, including warnings aimed at European allies, rattled risk markets and sent crypto prices lower.
Still, ARK’s message is clear.
Short-term volatility does little to change the long-term bet. If Wood’s projections hold, today’s swings may look like noise in a much bigger, $28 trillion picture.
Related: Cathie Wood predicts 2026 revised outlook
This story was originally published by TheStreet on Jan 22, 2026, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.