coincodex.com
Key highlights:
- U.S. investor and Shark Tank star Kevin O'Leary says he has decided to allocate 3% of his portfolio to Bitcoin
- He emphasized that he is very strict about where he wants to source his BTC from, citing sustainability as a major factor
- In 2019, O'Leary called Bitcoin "garbage"
Kevin O'Leary changes his tune on Bitcoin
Kevin O’Leary, the U.S. investor best known for his role in the Shark Tank TV show, has changed his tune on Bitcoin. After previously calling Bitcoin "garbage" and a "useless currency", O’Leary now says he has allocated 3% of his portfolio to the world’s largest cryptocurrency.
Is #bitcoin a currency? Property? An asset? Maybe all of the above, I’m going with a 3% portfolio allocation and am looking at investing in miners that can create coin under a mandate of 0 carbon so sustainably! https://t.co/qgAXZVZXzh
— Kevin O'Leary aka Mr. Wonderful (@kevinolearytv) March 1, 2021
O’Leary discussed his stance on investing in Bitcoin in an interview with Stansberry Research. When asked why he changed his mind on BTC, he highlighted positive regulatory developments as a key factor. Citing positions taken by regulators in Canada and Switzerland, O’Leary said that the approval of Bitcoin ETFs opens up the market to new types of investors:
"Now, that’s a game-changer, there’s no question about it. That allows institutions and individuals alike to allocate."
O’Leary proceeded to draw parallels between Bitcoin and gold, and continued by saying that Bitcoin represents a hedge against the potential devaluation of the US Dollar due to money printing:
"The concern I have right now in the U.S. market is the $1.9 trillion, basically, free money helicoptered out of the sky into the economy."
O’Leary also expressed some interesting views about how he is going about his Bitcoin invesmtment. He said that he does not want to purchase BTC mined in China or BTC coins produced by mining operations that are wasteful with their energy usage.
"Every coin I own, I want to know where it came from, and if it was made sustainably. And guess what – I’m hearing that ringing in my ear from every institution all around the world."
Throughout the interview, O’Leary emphasized that he does not want to own "blood coin", which presumably means BTC that was produced unethically or previously held by unethical actors. To achieve this, he is interested in investing in sustainable mining operations that would then pay him "royalties" in the form of the BTC they mine.
Mark Cuban, another prominent investor from the Shark Tank series, has also emerged as a proponent of cryptocurrency. In Cuban’s case, he seems to be particularly interested in decentralized finance (DeFi) sector.