CoinDesk interviews Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood, where she explains how the popularity of stablecoins affects her predictions for Bitcoin, her unique investment philosophy, and reveals Ark Invest's methodology for allocating crypto assets. This article is sourced from a piece by Coindesk, organized, translated, and written by Lena Xin, ChainCatcher. (Background: Cathie Wood: Bitcoin holders may convert BTC into Coinbase to mortgage buy a house) (Background: The 'Oracle of Omaha' gets into Ethereum! Ark Invest's BitMine invests $182 million; SharpLink Gaming buys another 80,000 ETH) I believe AI will soon disrupt traditional quantitative strategies, completely commodifying them. Guest: Cathie Wood, CEO and CIO of ARK Invest Podcast Date: August 12, 2025 ChainCatcher Editorial Summary: This article is compiled from Coindesk and a focused interview podcast with Cathie Wood, CEO and CIO of Ark Invest. She explains how the rapid popularity of stablecoins impacts her famous prediction of Bitcoin reaching $1.5 million, discusses her personal journey into economics research and her distinctive investment philosophy, and reveals Ark Invest's methodology for crypto asset allocation, operational logic of transparency strategies, and regulatory challenges. ChainCatcher has compiled and translated this. Highlights: Excessively high tax rates actually suppress tax revenue growth. Federal Reserve Chairman Powell breaks the balance, with political considerations as his term approaches next May, reflecting deeper economic concerns. If high interest rates persist, a substantial drop in housing prices will become the only solution to the housing crisis. The current US economy is on the brink of switching from a 'rolling recession' to an 'unexpected recovery'. The Ethereum network is becoming the main vehicle for the explosion of stablecoins. Bitcoin's two core values: entry for institutional allocation of digital assets and the digital form of gold. In a bullish market scenario, the target of Bitcoin breaking a million dollars within five years still holds, and may even significantly exceed that. We are more focused on the potential boundaries of AI, which is the true transformative mainline at present. From an investment perspective, markets like Europe face regulatory fragmentation and geopolitical risks. I believe AI will soon disrupt traditional quantitative strategies, completely commodifying them. (1) Cathie's Rise CoinDesk: What was your earliest impression of the market, financial systems, and innovation? Cathie Wood: During college, I was completely uncertain about my future direction, so I tried various possibilities. Engineering, education, geology, astronomy, physics... I really dabbled in all fields. To be honest, I didn't take economics back then, partly because my father especially hoped I would take that course. It wasn't until the last semester of my sophomore year at UCLA that I took economics and became completely fascinated. Upon discovering that UCLA did not have undergraduate business courses, I immediately transferred to USC, where I met the renowned economist Arthur Laffer. He recognized my passion for economics and referred me to the largest and most prestigious investment firm in Los Angeles at the time: Capital Group. When I first joined the company, I knew nothing about the financial world but instantly found the connection between economics and the real world. The feeling of participating in market activities made me fall in love with the investment industry almost immediately. I realized that this job not only paid me to learn but also helped me decipher the logic of how the world operates. At 20, when I joined Capital Group, I decided this would be my lifelong career. CoinDesk: What ignited your passion for economics? Cathie Wood: Although I had a close relationship with my father, the rebelliousness of my teenage years led me to deliberately avoid the economics he recommended. It wasn't until I met Professor Arthur Laffer that he captivated me with his unique teaching style. Each class started with real-world problems, igniting interest with jokes, eventually deriving formulas all over the blackboard. He presented the ideological clashes of economic schools: Harvard's Keynesianism, Chicago's monetarism, and the supply-side economics he was dedicated to promoting. This diverse perspective has given me a significant advantage in my career. When Wall Street was dominated by Keynesianism in the '80s, I accurately foresaw that Reagan's supply-side reforms would usher in the longest bull market in history. Even during the economic winter when interest rates soared to 15%, I firmly believed in the truth revealed by the Laffer curve: excessively high tax rates actually suppress tax revenue growth. Later, during my 18 years at Jennison Associates, we often invited my mentor to reinforce this idea. The intellectual foundation laid during those years ultimately allowed me to carve out my own path in the investment world. (2) Rare Divergence in the Fed Hints at Economic Changes? CoinDesk: The Federal Reserve just decided to keep interest rates unchanged. What are your views on interest rate trends? Cathie Wood: Today, the Fed's decision is notably marked by two dissenting votes, the first dual dissent since 1993. Chairman Powell has always valued consensus in decision-making, but with the balance being broken, there may be hidden implications. Political considerations as his term approaches next May may reflect deeper economic concerns. The two dissenting governors may have seen signs of continued weakness in the real estate market and tariff transmission failures, suggesting inflation will continue to decline. The job market shows structural differentiation, with rising unemployment among college graduates, reflecting that entry-level positions are being accelerated in replacement by AI. We have observed that housing inflation has reached a downward inflection point, but statistical lag has concealed the true trend. If the high-interest-rate environment continues, a substantial drop in housing prices will become the only solution to the housing crisis. The current US economy is on the brink of switching from a 'rolling recession' to an 'unexpected recovery'. As policy uncertainty diminishes, a leap in productivity over the next 6-9 months will become the biggest highlight. Breakthroughs in technologies such as robotics, energy storage, AI, blockchain, and gene sequencing are creating unprecedented deflationary momentum. This 'creative destruction' will lead to polarization: benign deflation for innovators and fatal shocks for incumbents. Current mainstream economists seriously underestimate the depth and breadth of this deflationary revolution. (3) Regulatory Easing + AI Revolution, Will Ethereum Become the Core of Institutional Crypto Infrastructure? CoinDesk: In the outlook for the next 6-9 months, what role do you see cryptocurrencies playing in the recovery you foresee? Cathie Wood: Regulatory shifts are reshaping the innovation landscape. Moving from the 'enforcement regulation' of the Gensler era to a legislatively guided friendly framework is accelerating the rise of 'agent-based AI': in the future, AI assistants will make autonomous decisions and collaborate, which requires smart contracts as underlying support. As AI agents automatically settle with media platforms, the value of the integration of blockchain and AI becomes apparent. With regulatory breakthroughs, traditional institutions are heavily investing in blockchain, which not only compresses payment costs from 3.5% to 1% (when the global asset management scale reaches $250 trillion in five years, a 2% cost saving means a huge efficiency boost), but will also give rise to agent-based AI-driven micropayment networks. These innovations forming the 'digital infrastructure' are becoming the core engine of the next round of productivity revolution, which is the strategic fulcrum of the crypto economy in the new cycle. CoinDesk: Do you see Ethereum as the foundational layer for building an efficient agent-based AI ecosystem? Cathie ...

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