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Cathie Wood, founder of ARK Fund: Yellen doesn't understand digital currencies. Bitcoin is far more energy efficient than gold

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"Bitcoin consumes only a fraction of the energy it needs to mine gold and maintain its traditional financial infrastructure."

The 'Bull Queen' : The Wooden Lady: Yellen Doesn't Understand Digital Currency, Bitcoin Is Far More Energy Saving Than Gold

Original source: Wall Street

Cathie Wood, the queen of the bull market, is once again on the bitcoin side. In a new video, the founder of Ark Investments (ARK) responds to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's latest criticism of bitcoin by pointing out that she doesn't understand digital currencies.

On Monday, Ms. Yellen spoke about bitcoin at an online event for The New York Times. Ms. Yellen argued that trading in bitcoin is a "highly inefficient way to do it," and that processing these exchanges consumes a staggering amount of energy; Bitcoin is also a "highly speculative asset" and a digital currency could lead to a faster and cheaper payment experience, "but there are many issues that need to be studied, including consumer protection and anti-money laundering."

Wood disagrees. She said Yellen did not understand the crypto world and was only saying so to mitigate price volatility.

Yellen... Going to great lengths to show how speculative bitcoin is, how ungreen or unsustainable it is, and how it can fuel illegal activity... I don't quite understand why she said so.

With all due respect, I just know that she doesn't understand the crypto world, and that's out of her depth. It seemed to me that she was responding to dramatic price movements. Think about it, the currency has risen fivefold since the end of the third quarter of last year. That's extreme, so I can understand her saying that.

Wood then refutes both of Yellen's arguments.

As for energy waste, Wood asserts that bitcoin consumes only a fraction of the energy it needs to mine gold and maintain its traditional financial infrastructure.

As for fueling criminal activity, she said the open blockchain actually makes it easy for law enforcement officials to track illicit money flows. A recent study by Chainalysis found that crypto-related crimes as a percentage of total transactions have fallen from 2.1 percent in 2019 to 0.34 percent in 2020.

Wood also mentioned that Bitcoin is the most secure blockchain technology available, and the cost is very low. Traditional financial systems are much more expensive than Bitcoin to transfer a large amount of money, such as $1 million.