Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary, aka Mr. Fantastic shared his crypto investment strategy as well as which coins he has. His discussion also included diversification and regulation of crypto markets, as well as why he believes non-fungible tokens will outperform bitcoin.
Kevin O’Leary Discusses His Crypto Investments, Market Bubbles, and NFTs
Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary discussed cryptocurrency, his investment portfolio, diversification, market bubbles, meme coins, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in a recent interview with Forbes, published Friday.
He explained that he views “the entire crypto industry as software development teams,” adding that he is betting on “really strong creative software engineers.” While talking about his cryptocurrency holdings, he revealed:
Ether is the largest of my positions, larger than Bitcoin.
“It’s because so many of the financial services and transactions are occurring on it,” the Shark Tank star described. “Even new software is being developed like Polygon that consolidates transactions and reduces the overall cost in terms of gas fees on Ethereum.”
O’Leary then mentioned some of the cryptocurrencies he owns, stating:
I own hedera, polygon, bitcoin, ethereum, solana, serum — these are bets on software development teams and there are many, many use cases for them.
Moreover, Mr. Wonderful added that he holds “a significant and material position in USDC,” noting that he is “starting to pay for assets and get paid in the stablecoin.”
“At the end of the day, what determines the platform’s success and value is the speed and level of adoption. That occurs when the team has developed a platform that solves an economic problem,” he opined.
O’Leary proceeded to offer his opinion about meme cryptocurrencies. Noting that “long term coins that have no economic value are that because they don’t solve anything or create any value,” he cautioned:
I’m very skeptical of meme coins long term.
Shark Tank Star was also asked by the audience whether bitcoin or any other cryptocurrencies were in a bubble. He replied: “The thing to realize is, the market is the market. No one person can manipulate it, even though people claim they can … It’s millions of decisions being made every second in terms of what something is worth. And it applies to every market, whether it’s tulips, watches, bitcoin, real estate or gold.”
Noting that “Over the long run, it’s a fool’s game and you can’t win,” he stressed:
You can’t know when it’s a bubble, you simply can’t. And if you think you do, you’re absolutely wrong.
O’Leary believes in portfolio diversification. O’Leary has seen his cryptocurrency portfolio grow. He detailed that at some point cryptocurrency “might get to 20% of my operating company — but right now, it’s about 10.5%.” He clarified:
Within that portfolio, there’s no one token coin or chain that’s more than 5% of that portfolio. Yes, volatility is a factor in my active additions and subtractions.
He also stated that he does a lot in staking. “Most of my positions are now being staked,” he confirmed, noting that he’s using the crypto exchange FTX for staking. Mr. Wonderful announced in October that he is taking an equity stake in the crypto exchange and will be “paid in crypto to serve as an ambassador and spokesperson for FTX.”
When asked whether there is a chance that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could determine some of the cryptocurrencies he owns to be securities and what he will do if that happens, O’Leary promptly replied:
Once that information is out, they will be gone. If I were in a position to sell, it would be. Concerning my crypto portfolio, I don’t want to get into trouble with regulators. I am 100% compliant.
In November, he made the same statement about XRP. Ripple Labs’ executives Brad Garlinghouse, Chris Larsen and Ripple Labs are facing an SEC suit over XRP. “I have zero interest in investing in litigation against the SEC. That is a very bad idea,” he stressed.
O’Leary also discussed non-fungible tokens (NFTs). “They offer so much value around authentication, inventory management, and all kinds of use cases in different asset classes,” he described, adding:
My opinion is that non-fungible tokens may be even more valuable than bitcoin.
He continued to call attention to his NFT initiative. “I prefer NFTs tied to hard assets, physical assets; the one that I’m working on developing a white paper for is the watch industry,” he said. “I made a material investment in Jordan Fried’s company, Immutable Holdings, which owns nft.com, which he’s launching in January, as well as Wonderfi.”
What do you think about Kevin O’Leary’s comments? Please leave your comments below.
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