Cathie Wood feeling 'a lot better' about crypto, thinks Fed 'panicked'

High profile fund manager Cathie Wood said she is "feeling a lot better" about the cryptocurrency sector after the drop the asset class saw in the first half of 2022, which has Bitcoin (BTC-USD) trading below $20K and Ethereum (ETH-USD) hovering around $1.1K.The founder and CEO of ARK Invest also contended that the Federal Reserve has "panicked" by raising interest rates as aggressively as it has, arguing that policymakers are more concerned about their historical reputations than about the economy.Speaking on her In The Know podcast over the weekend, Wood said that indicators within the inflation data suggest that "the Fed is making a big mistake" and that "there's already a lot of deflation in the economy."As to the current crypto market, Wood described her position as "neutral to positive" over the near term, with her sentiment boosted by a lack of "another stress signal in the last few days." However, she added that "we’re waiting for a few more capitulation signals."The ARKK Invest founder contended that "transparency" in the crypto ecosystem has exposed broader overreach by many hedge fund managers, who borrowed money at low rates in previous years to boost their returns."It’s like, okay, the crypto market has alerted us that this reach for yield went way too far and there are too many excesses, too much leverage around it," she said.Wood pointed to "hedge funds leveraging 10 to one when yields are 2% so that they can re...