Shark Tank star and investor Kevin O’Leary says his portfolio contains more cryptocurrency than gold for the first time. The business magnate says that he sees a lot of opportunity in the crypto space far beyond mere price speculation. O’Leary reveals now he has 5% in gold while crypto now makes up 7% of his investment portfolio.
“I have 5% in gold so crypto for the first time is more than gold for me, and I’m going to keep my gold. I see no reason to sell it. But in crypto, it’s not just betting on the price of Bitcoin (BTC) anymore. There are so many other ways to invest, particularly in blockchain opportunities [such as] Solana and Ethereum…
“Nothing is going to replace gold… [It] will remain an asset class in portfolios like mine and others as a property. You can’t stake gold. You can’t lend gold… At the same time, with crypto, you have the opportunity to stake it or lend it and get some kind of appreciation of value through interest.
So I think they’re two different asset classes… It’s fun to see the press create this controversy between gold and Bitcoin, [but] it’s irrelevant. They’re completely different. From my perspective, having exposure to both is a good idea.”
Furthermore, O’Leary reveals that crypto investment now amounts to 7% of his balance sheet portfolio.
Notably, he strongly believes in diversifying his portfolio and betting on both gold and bitcoin. Noting that its a good idea to have exposure in both assets. While, instead of having to make a decision against another as indicate by the media.
Additionally, during an interview with Daniella Cambone on Stansberry Research, the popular investor also notes he won’t selling off all his gold. However, judging from his perspective, he sees the crypto space as a huge deal, even beyond just price speculations.
Furthermore, he explains that there’s so many other reason to invest in crypto other than betting on the price alone. He goes on pointing out Solana and Ethereum blockchain.
“This is not going away, this is the new asset class,” O’Leary told CNBC this week, predicting there will be “trillions of dollars of interest waiting to come on board” to cryptocurrencies with a “another trillion dollars worth of [bitcoin] buying” when regulators ultimately name bitcoin and crypto an institutional asset class.
However, O’Leary did warn that though he expects regulators to recognize cryptocurrencies as an institutional asset class, he’s not sure when it will happen.
“I don’t want to get involved in crypto if the regulator says it’s not okay,” O’Leary said. “I can’t afford to be offside, I cannot afford to be non-compliant.”
This week, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Gary Gensler has called for more resources to better manage the nascent crypto industry and markets that he’s compared to the “Wild West” after suggestions the regulator is failing to protect investors.
O’Leary, who said as recently as 2019 that bitcoin is “garbage” and “worthless,” joins fellow Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban in changing his tune on bitcoin and crypto this past year.
In August, Cuban warned shutting off the bitcoin and crypto “growth engine” would be like “stopping e-commerce in 1995″ after U.S. lawmakers proposed a crypto tax provision in its $1 trillion infrastructure bill.
"Shark Tank" investor Kevin O'Leary has called on US regulators to set some rules around the cryptocurrency market, saying that no one in finance wants to be "cowboys" about it.
"We want the regulator to actually make some decisions about crypto, because none of us that are in financial services want to actually be cowboys about this," he said on CNBC's "Capital Connection" in an interview published Monday. "I don't want to get involved in crypto if the regulator says it's not okay."
"I can't afford to be offside. I cannot afford to be non-compliant," O'Leary said. "If the regulator finally allowed financial services companies to call it an asset, put it into an ETF in the United States - like they have in Canada and other countries - I'd figure there'd be another trillion dollars worth of buying into bitcoin. And we don't have that yet, but that's the opportunity."
Some portfolio managers say although many are excited about bitcoin ETFs, it's a massive contradiction because crypto investors shouldn't need a product like that to get into the crypto market. However, traditional investors want an ETF so they can speculate on bitcoin's price.
The US has no single regulatory agency that oversees the crypto market, as digital assets aren't classified as "securities." SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has called the cryptocurrency industry "the Wild West," and recently urged Congress to provide the agency with more authority to regulate it.