Cathie Wood Says Central Banks Aren't Fleeing The Dollar — What That Means For The Bitcoin Hedge

Wood linked her dollar-positive outlook to US innovation and economic policy, while continuing to favor Bitcoin as a long-term hedge against currency debasement.

• Cathie Wood pushed back against de-dollarization fears, arguing that foreign holdings of US Treasuries remain broadly rising despite selective selling by some central banks.
• Wood said recent Treasury sales by countries such as Japan were primarily aimed at supporting local currencies rather than signaling a broad retreat from the US dollar.
• Treasury data showed foreign official institutions were net buyers of long-term US securities in April, with strong private and official demand keeping overall foreign flows positive.

ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood pushed back on the de-dollarization narrative in the firm's latest "In the Know" on Thursday, arguing that the data do not support the widely held view that central banks are broadly dumping US Treasuries.

Wood explained that despite the story that every central bank is selling and that the dollar's dominance is fading, foreign holdings of Treasuries are, for the most part, still increasing. She characterized recent selling by countries including Japan and Turkey as currency-defense moves rather than a wholesale exit from the dollar, pointing to Japan's efforts to support a yen trading near 40-year lows around 162 per dollar. 

Wood reiterated a dollar-positive stance overall, tying it to US fiscal policy, deregulation and corporate tax cuts, and said talk of the end of American exceptionalism was greatly exaggerated, citing SpaceX (SPCX), OpenAI (OPEAZZX) and Anthropic (ANTHZZX) as examples of US innovation leadership, according to the video.

What The Official Data Shows

The latest Treasury International Capital numbers paint a picture more in keeping with Wood’s read. In April, foreign official institutions – the central banks at the heart of the de-dollarization debate – were net buyers of $41.6 billion of long-term US securities, challenging the idea that central banks are broadly moving away from dollar assets.

Treasury figures show foreign demand was also solidly positive, with foreign residents buying a net $206.0 billion in long-term U.S. securities in April. The split makes any simple reading of the de-dollarization debate difficult. Official inflows were $49.2 billion for the month, but private foreign flows turned negative.

Wood's Broader Macro View

The de-dollarization comments came alongside Wood's wider case that the US is entering a technology-driven deflationary boom, with productivity accelerating and inflation running lower than official measures suggest. 

On crypto, Wood has continued to favor Bitcoin (BTC) over gold as a long-term holding, saying earlier this year she would shift from gold to Bitcoin even as gold outpaced Bitcoin in 2025. She has also maintained a long-term Bitcoin price target of $1.25 million within five years, framing the token as an insurance policy against currency debasement.

What This Means For Bitcoin?

Wood’s data-driven rebuttal suggests that the dollar exodus that underpins that case is not yet visible in the official numbers. For retail investors, the immediate relevance is to the Bitcoin hedge: the de-dollarization story is a central plank of the case for BTC as a fiat alternative. Continued reserve rotation has benefitted gold over Bitcoin, underscoring how far the asset still is from the store-of-value function its proponents imagine.

Bitcoin’s price was up over 1% during the past 24 hours. On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment around BTC remained in the ‘neutral’ zone, while chatter around it shifted to ‘normal’ from ‘low’ over the past day.

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