Ark's Cathie Wood says bitcoin could hit $1.5 million by 2030. The US economy would have to crash, 'Shark Tank' investor Kevin O'Leary says.

• Ark Invest's Cathie Wood said bitcoin's price could surge by almost 33-fold to $1.5 million by 2030.
• "Shark Tank" investor Kevin O'Leary said that would only happen if the US economy collapsed.

Cathie Wood's bull case for bitcoin is a nearly 33-fold surge in price to $1.5 million by 2030. That will only happen if there's an economic catastrophe, Kevin O'Leary says.

The tech evangelist and Ark Invest CEO issued the striking forecast this week after the Securities and Exchange Commission approved her and other firms' spot bitcoin ETFs for the first time — a decision that cryptocurrency fans hailed as a key step toward mainstream adoption of tokens.

In a CoinDesk interview, O'Leary dismissed Wood's most optimistic price target as unrealistic unless something goes terribly wrong.

"To actually peg a price of that kind of appreciation would mean that the American economy collapsed in my view, so that is not a good speculation," the "Shark Tank" investor and O'Leary Ventures chairman said. Bitcoin serves as a hedge against the global economy, he said, so its price would probably only explode that much if there was a major disaster.

"For bitcoin to appreciate that quickly to that price would mean that the US economy had somehow faltered in my view," he said. "So no, I don't agree with that price point."

Still, O'Leary predicted bitcoin would at least triple in price from about $46,000 today to between $150,000 and $250,000 by 2030, and outpace the S&P 500 over the next five years. Wood's bear case for the most valuable crypto is $250,000 by 2030, while her base case is north of $680,000.

O'Leary — whose nickname is "Mr. Wonderful" — welcomed the SEC decision. He said it should pave the way for bitcoin to be listed on a regulated US exchange, allowing sovereign wealth funds and other large financial institutions to invest in it, which could supercharge the token's gains in the years ahead.

The veteran investor, previously a frontman for Sam Bankman-Fried's bankrupt FTX, said he's bet on wider acceptance of crypto by securing a direct stake in Canada's WonderFi, and an indirect stake in M2, which launched in Abu Dhabi last year.

"I want to own the picks and shovels of crypto, and those are the regulated exchanges," he said.