ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood is a veteran investor in the digital assets industry even though it's still barely more than a decade old.
But they have taken the world by storm, and when even top asset managers like BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) couldn't resist, it makes sense why Wood stepped in first.
Recently, Vanity Fair covered the top figures leading the crypto industry, including Wood, in a story and probed them on their fascination with the disruptive industry.
Gold's value comes from scarcity, bonds' from institutional trust, real estate's from place and permanence, commodities' from matter itself, and stocks' from human ingenuity.
So where does crypto derive its value from? Which "creation myth" of crypto do its proponents believe is true who think it's the "sixth asset class"?
To answer the question, Wood goes back to 1971 when the gold standard of the global monetary system got abandoned.
Related: Cathie Wood sends blunt message after Bitcoin crashes
'Nixon shock' of 1971
From the late 1800s to the First World War, the global economy ran on the gold standard.
Governments or central banks used to hold gold reserves and could convert their currency for gold. In this system, each unit of currency represented a specific amount of gold.
But the global economy transitioned to the Bretton Woods system following the Second World War and the U.S. dollar became dominant.
While the dollar itself was backed by gold, other global currencies were backed by the dollar. It turned the U.S. dollar into the global reserve currency.
But the fiscal strain due to the Vietnam War forced U.S. President Richard Nixon to end dollar-to-gold convertibility in 1971.
It meant the U.S. dollar was no longer backed by gold; instead, it was backed by government authority. So, the U.S. dollar became a fiat currency.
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Wood been waiting for crypto since 1971
When Vanity Fair asked Wood about why she is interested in crypto, this is what she had to say:
"I have been waiting for this since we closed the gold window in 1971."
After all, the proponents of Bitcoin (BTC) believe it's "digital gold."
Similar to gold, Bitcoin is a scarce asset with a limited supply of 21 million coins.
Similar to gold, Bitcoin claims to serve as a hedge asset against inflation and dollar debasement.
In 2018, Wood revealed that ARK Invest was the first public asset manager to gain Bitcoin (BTC) exposure in 2015 amid sharp criticism.
Back then, it wasn't worth even $500 a coin, and now, it's trading around $71,400 despite its decline from the peak of $126,000.
ARK Invest has even predicted that Bitcoin will hit $1 million in 2030.
Wood also keeps buying shares of crypto-linked companies such as:
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Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN), the largest crypto exchange in the U.S.
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Robinhood Markets (Nasdaq: HOOD), an e-trading platform with crypto and tokenized stock offerings
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Block (NYSE: SQ), Jack Dorsey's Bitcoin technology company
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Bitmine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: BMNR), the world's largest Ethereum (ETH) treasury company
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Bullish (NYSE: BLSH), the crypto exchange backed by Peter Thiel
Crypto dreams big
When Wood met economist Arthur Laffer, who served as a member of former President Ronald Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board, she said she asked him about crypto, "How big could this idea be?"
As per Wood, Laffer's response was, "Well, how big is the US monetary base?"
While it seems like a tall claim that crypto will take over the U.S. monetary base, top stock exchanges in the country such as Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange are aiming to tokenize the $126 trillion equity market so that traders can invest in U.S. equities even outside traditional trading hours.
Related: Cathie Wood's ARK warns of shocking risk to 35% of Bitcoin
This story was originally published by TheStreet on Mar 18, 2026, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
