Bitcoin’s Long-Term Opportunity is Strengthening, Says Ark

Bitcoin is strengthening its long-term opportunity, according to Ark Invest's annual research report.

Released on 31 January 2023, Ark's Big Ideas 2023 highlights this year's "technological breakthroughs" and growth potentials.

Whilst Ark highlights that contagion wiped out around US$1.5 trillion in crypto market cap last year, the firm also believes that public blockchains "continue to foster multiple revolutions." These revolutions are broken down into the monetary revolution, the financial revolution and the internet revolution.

As part of the monetary revolution, Ark states that bitcoin settled around US$100 trillion of value in 791 million transactions since its inception. Miners have also remained active despite the market downturn, mining about 53,000 blocks and generating US$10 billion of revenue in 2022.

Additionally, Ark details how centralized money systems have "failed to provide strong economic assurances," leading to the further rise of Bitcoin. Examples of this include 4 billion people living under authoritarian regimes, 2 billion people suffering from double-digit inflation and 1 billion people who cannot use traditional payment transfer apps.

Conversely, Bitcoin is resistant to censorship, inflation and seizure, Ark argues. The leading cryptocurrency is also auditable and transparent.

Numbers shown by Ark are also encouraging for Bitcoin bulls. Transfer volume hit over US$38 trillion in 2022 with over 147 trillion total addresses.

"We believe Bitcoin’s long-term opportunity is strengthening," Ark states. "Despite a turbulent year, Bitcoin has not skipped a beat. Its network fundamentals have strengthened and its holder base has become more long-term focused."

"Contagion caused by centralized counterparties has elevated Bitcoin’s value propositions: decentralization, auditability, and transparency."

Good start for Bitcoin

2023 has been a good start for Bitcoin. Despite being down over 40% from its February 2022 price, much of its loss has been regained already with its price jumping 39% YTD.

Despite the turbulent markets, Ark is sticking to its long-term conviction on the potential for the world's leading cryptocurrency, saying the price of one Bitcoin, "could exceed $1 million" in the next decade.