Deborah D'Souza
5 min read
Kevin O’Leary has come a long way from the time he called Bitcoin “garbage.”
Now, the Shark Tank judge tells Moneywise, cryptocurrency-related assets make up 19.4% of his portfolio. Besides coins and tokens, he also owns stakes in “picks and shovels” — that is, platforms and exchanges that deal in crypto.
-
Thanks to Jeff Bezos, you can now become a landlord for as little as $100 — and no, you don't have to deal with tenants or fix freezers. Here's how
-
I'm 49 years old and have nothing saved for retirement — what should I do? Don't panic. Here are 5 of the easiest ways you can catch up (and fast)
-
Nervous about the stock market in 2025? Find out how you can access this $1B private real estate fund (with as little as $10)
The entrepreneur says he changed his mind about the asset as regulators around the world came on board. However, it hasn’t been enough to convince most institutional investors, like sovereign wealth and pension funds, to dip their toes in.
“I never thought I’d say this, but I want more regulation, and I want it now,” O’Leary said at the beginning of his keynote speech at the Consensus crypto conference in Toronto.
“After almost two decades of growth in the crypto industry, we have hit a wall. We have hit a wall on AUM (assets under management).”
On the other side of that wall lies a trillion-dollar prize, he believes — but it all hinges on Congress passing two key bills.
Like many cryptocurrency supporters and investors, O’Leary believes the space is on the cusp of something big.
The industry is abuzz with anticipation. Optimism about the future of crypto under the Trump administration has helped drive the price of Bitcoin past $110,000, an enormous jump after it spent much of 2024 hovering below $70,000.
Coinbase, the largest American company in the space, has been one of the biggest winners. The SEC dropped a lawsuit against the company in February, and the stock secured itself a position in the prestigious S&P 500 index.
Crypto now holds a place in many retirement portfolios, you can invest in Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, and the days of “regulation by enforcement” — a common complaint against the previous administration — appear to be over.
But it will take a lot more to win institutional capital, which O’Leary says would give consumers more access. He argues regulation will be a form of dialysis that will clean the system of bad assets.
“When the regulatory environment is clear … the volume of capital that will come into the top five tokens is going to be like a vortex sucking cash out of the crap at the bottom,” he said.
