It has been said by Cathie Wood, the Chief Executive Officer of ARK Invest, that there is now a "substitution
occurring from gold to bitcoin (BTC), and the availability of spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) would further extend this trend.
Even when compared to gold, Bitcoin (BTC) has been steadily increasing in value ever since its early days, as Wood mentioned in the "Big Ideas 2024" podcast hosted by ARK Invest.
This is despite the fact that the price of the most prominent cryptocurrency is generally denominated in fiat currencies, most often the United States dollar.
"There's now a substitution into bitcoin, and we think that is going to continue now that there is a much easier way ... to access bitcoin," said the researcher.
When it comes to the ability to hold value, Bitcoin is sometimes likened to gold owing to the fact that its supply is limited and mining both gold and Bitcoin is difficult. Unlike other assets, such as national currencies, which might appear to be produced out of thin air, this is not the case with national currencies.
It is feasible to draw parallels between the potential consequences of the first spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and the impact that the first gold ETF had.
Seven years after the first exchange-traded fund (ETF) was introduced in November 2004, the price of the yellow metal increased by more than 250%.