Kevin O’Leary – the legendary investor of “Shark Tank” fame – is telling traders that they shouldn’t get their hopes up on bitcoin unless more institutions feel comfortable enough with the asset.
Kevin O’Leary Thinks Institutions Make All the Difference
The argument surrounding bitcoin’s abilities are typically centered on institutions. Over the past few years, companies like software giant MicroStrategy and payment processing firm Square have invested billions of dollars in bitcoin. Thus, we have seen the currency rise from about $1,000 to more than $60,000 between 2016 and 2021.
No doubt bitcoin has come a long way since it first came on the financial scene in 2009, but it could go a lot farther… That is, according to O’Leary, if more institutions continue to invest in it. Right now, bitcoin is doing well with certain institutions, but there still aren’t enough in his mind, and thus the currency could wind up in a halted position.
He commented in an interview:
If you want to talk about bitcoin going to $100,000, $200,000, $300,000, it’s going to be when institutions can finally buy it. At some point in the next two to three years, the US regulator is going to rule on cryptocurrencies.
Right now, regulation surrounding digital currencies is unclear. It also looks like countries such as the United States are prepared to vamp up their efforts to not only regulate the space, but ensure bad actors are unable to take advantage of its many open windows. Not long ago, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced that it was establishing a whole new division devoted strictly to ending digital currency fraud and investigating cybercriminals.
But until this division and other arenas of regulation are fully formed, O’Leary thinks the crypto space is likely to fluctuate even further, though he is confident that eventually the rules and laws surrounding digital currency will be easy to understand. He commented:
As soon as that happens, if I’m running a sovereign fund or pension plan, I’m going to allocate to it probably one percent to three percent, and I want to be long bitcoin when that happens.
Moving Money to Crypto
At press time, O’Leary is known to hold BTC, ETH, and USD Coin, a popular stable currency. He mentioned that approximately ten percent of his portfolio consists of digital currencies. He said:
I can tell you with certainty right now, because I service sovereign wealth funds and pension plans and in the indexing business — for all of the hype around bitcoin, none of those institutions own a single coin, and they’re not going to until their compliance departments allow for the ESG (environmental, social, and governance) mandates to be checked the box on that, and of course, be compliant on the asset class itself, but when they do get that go ahead, the price of the coin is going to appreciate dramatically.