Cathie Wood, Michael Saylor defend Bitcoin after Calacanis calls it outdated

ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood publicly challenged venture capitalist Jason Calacanis this week after he labeled Bitcoin as a fading technology and dismissed the recent BTC price rally as a “dead cat bounce.”

High-profile voices respond to criticism

On X, Wood responded directly to Calacanis, stating that “Bitcoin is not a dead cat, Jason! It has many lives ahead.” Her remarks followed Calacanis’s argument that Bitcoin’s recent recovery above $80,000 was ultimately meaningless, citing what he believes to be a long-term loss of momentum for the digital asset.

Calacanis, known for his early investments in Uber and his influential podcast, outlined several criticisms of Bitcoin. He described the largest cryptocurrency as unsuitable for everyday transactions and smart contract functionality, and argued that the user experience remains difficult for the average person.

He summed up his view of Bitcoin’s evolution as “from punk rock to Muzak,” claiming institutional adoption had transformed the asset into little more than a store of value—comparing it to outdated formats like CDs in the modern era of Spotify, or DVDs in the era of Netflix.

Preserving wealth across generations is a bigger ambition than entertaining a dinner party, according to Michael Saylor, who cited Bitcoin’s $1.6 trillion market value as a demonstration of its role as “digital capital.”