Blockchain.com co-founder Nicolas Cary hit back at Cathie Wood after the investor took a swipe at the crypto business by questioning its valuation and management.
“If you look at the others like Blockchain.com, its valuation has tripled over the past year while Coinbase is down 40% in our portfolios. It doesn’t make sense,” Wood, the CEO of Ark Invest, told CNBC on Tuesday.
“Coinbase is a far better and well-diversified company, right? And I would say a better run company.”
Blockchain.com is a cryptocurrency trading platform and wallet, and a direct rival of Coinbase. Blockchain.com is still a private company. Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest funds own shares in US-listed Coinbase. Coinbase shares have fallen more than 50% over the past year.
Wood’s comments came in the context of a response about tech stock valuations as interest rates rise. She spoke about the difference between public and private market valuations of technology companies.
“This (Blockchain.com) is up 3x in a year and Coinbase is down 40%. Does that make sense to you? I think the private market has more right than the public markets. And the reasons public markets are like this. It’s not efficient that they don’t do the research,” Wood said.
Cary, co-founder and vice chairman of Blockchain.com, hit back at Wood’s comments.
“Well there is definitely a difference between private markets and public markets and Cathie’s position has taken a pretty big discount. I think what’s interesting is yeah, our company valuation has tripled, and it’s in the context of a global pandemic, a collapse in tech stocks, and a land war erupting in Europe,” Cary said in an interview with CNBC on Wednesday.
“Coinbase’s position is not well understood in the market…long term, I think both companies have a lot of upside potential and our recent investors are very excited about our future. We’ve worked very hard to build a composition of revenue that drives better quarterly results.”
Pushed to respond to Woods’ specific comments about Blockchain.com’s management, Cary said, “I think the market is pretty clear – their position is down 50% and ours is up 3x…”
Cary said that Blockchain.com is taking a “patient approach” to the IPO and is currently “well capitalized.”
“Tech stocks have obviously taken a hit, Cathie’s positions are down everywhere, we’ll take our time with that. We need to make crypto markets better understood by public markets,” said Cary.