It looks like businessman Kevin O’Leary, who appears on reality TV show Shark Tank, is retiring from statements he made in December indicating he might buy more Bitcoin.
In an episode of his YouTube series released today titled “Why I DON’T Invest in Bitcoin”, O’Leary chatted with Bitcoiner Anthony ‘Pomp’ Pompliano and called Bitcoin (BTC) a ‘giant citizen’ in terms of its value as an asset. He argued that he would not be able to make a ‘significant deal’ with the crypto-asset due to inconsistent regulatory frameworks around the world.
“I look at the asset value of Bitcoin versus the asset value of everything traded, and Bitcoin is still a non-citizen – a giant non-citizen,” O’Leary said. “The reason I would argue that this is the case is that not every institution is willing to play ball with it.”
However, the Shark Tank star is not entirely against Bitcoin. He appeared in an episode of Pomp’s podcast in December, revealing that he already owns a BTC and may consider investing between 1% and 2.5% of his portfolio in the crypto asset in the future. In his YouTube video today, the businessman also said that Bitcoin could have the potential to become ‘something of tremendous value’ if regulators in different countries were behind digital assets:
‘If there has been an attempt to take Bitcoin itself or another currency […] it can be traded anywhere with the regulator agreeing to it and be agnostic – in other words, you can trade it to buy assets in Switzerland, trade it to buy assets in France or in England or in the United States […] everyone would take the digital currency. ”
O’Leary is known for suggesting colorful but critical nicknames. He previously referred to digital assets as “crypto crap” and Bitcoin as “not a real currency” and a “rogue currency.”