Canadian businessman Kevin O’Leary, who appears on the reality TV show Shark Tank, has seemingly softened his stance on Bitcoin after speaking with Anthony ‘Pomp’ Pompliano.
In an episode of the Pomp Podcast released today, Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary appeared to be moving past his statements last year when he declared that Bitcoin (BTC) was “not a real currency” — though he still expressed concerns about the crypto asset’s volatility.
The businessman said that he already owned some BTC and he might consider investing “a little bit more” of his $400 million net worth in the cryptocurrency.
“I am not against Bitcoin, I’m not against it,” said O’Leary. “But when you’re talking about putting millions of dollars to work you really want to understand that you can think long term about it and I have a feeling there’ll be other alternative ideas.”
O’Leary said his main concern over investing anywhere from 1% to 2.5% of his portfolio — half what he holds in gold — into Bitcoin is the crypto asset doesn’t have the backing of regulators yet:
“Maybe I’ll put a little bit more [into Bitcoin] just for the heck of it. I have a little bit just so I can watch the price but it bothers me when I can’t get the regulator on board.”
However, if governments were to get behind digital assets, the businessman said he would consider putting a larger percentage of his portfolio into crypto. “The globe needs a digital currency,” he said.
“If you told me the Swiss and the Euro and the American and the Canadian, Australian governments agreed to whatever that is, I would put up to 20% of my portfolio in it.”
The Shark Tank star’s comments seemingly show a greater acceptance of crypto assets given what he said last year. In a 2019 CNBC interview, O’Leary referred to crypto as a “rogue currency” because one couldn’t pay taxes using it and was largely unregulated:
“I have no interest in doing any of this crypto crap because it is not compliant.”