Businessman Kevin O’Leary, who appeared on the reality TV show Shark Tank, appears to be pulling back on statements made in December that he could potentially buy more Bitcoin.
In an episode of his YouTube series released today titled “Why I DON’T Invest in Bitcoin”, O’Leary spoke to bitcoiner Anthony ‘Pomp’ Pompliano and called Bitcoin (BTC) a “giant-nothing burger” in terms of its value as an asset. He argued that due to the inconsistent legal framework around the world, he would not be able to conduct a “significant transaction” with the crypto asset.
“I look at the asset value of Bitcoin compared to the asset value of everything traded, and Bitcoin is still a nothing burger – a huge nothing burger,” said O’Leary. “The reason I would argue it does is because you don’t have every institution willing to play ball with it.”
The Shark Tank Star isn’t entirely against Bitcoin, however. He appeared on an episode of Pomp’s podcast in December and revealed that he already owned some BTC and could potentially invest between 1% and 2.5% of his portfolio in the crypto asset in the future. In his YouTube video today, the businessman also said Bitcoin had the potential to become “something of tremendous value” if regulators in different countries stepped behind digital assets:
“When someone tried to take Bitcoin itself or another currency […] That could be traded anywhere, with the regulator’s approval, and would be agnostic – in other words, you could trade it to buy assets in Switzerland, trade it to buy assets in France, England or the United States […] Anyone would take this digital currency. “
O’Leary is known for coming up with colorful but critical nicknames. Previously, he called digital assets “crypto crap” and bitcoin “no real currency” and “rogue currency”.
