Canadian venture capitalist and star of Shark Tank Kevin O’Leary has upped his crypto investment portfolio to 20%.
Speaking with CNBC’s Squawk Box, O’Leary says he views cryptocurrencies as if they’re shares in software companies.
“Bitcoin is not a coin, it’s simply software,” he said.
“Ethereum is software. HBAR is software. If you own Microsoft, if you own Google, why don’t you own Bitcoin? It’s all software… 20% of my portfolio is now in cryptocurrencies and blockchain.”
O'Leary, a former crypto skeptic who referred to Bitcoin as “garbage” less than three years ago, before slowly changing his tune. By March of 2021, the billionaire conceded and revealed he was planning on putting 3% of his portfolio into Bitcoin.
Roughly a year later, O’Leary has expanded well beyond Bitcoin, venturing into a variety of altcoins, mining companies, and even becoming a spokesperson for FTX, one of the biggest crypto exchanges in the world.
Image via Shutterstock "You have to be diversified.” he said, adding that he owns 32 different positions, including his equity in FTX.
“You don’t know who’s going to win. Is Ethereum going to win? Is Solana going to win? Is it Helium? Is it Avalanche? I own them all, and luckily they’re just software developer teams, you go meet these people and you find out they’re in their twenties, they’re the smartest engineers in the world. If you graduate from MIT right now, you don’t want to work at an old industrial company. You want to go to a blockchain company. So we should support this initiative…”
O’Leary has also become a vocal proponent of reaching regulatory clarity for crypto in the US, lamenting that other geographies are getting a head start on the blossoming industry with more accommodative environments. He is reportedly working with Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming to create bipartisan crypto-friendly legislation.
“Right now the world is waiting," O'Leary said.
"The Canadians had the very first crypto exchange. They have the very first ETF with Bitcoin in it. How come we don't? The same in the United Arab Emirates. Same in Switzerland. We are so far behind in policy for this nascent industry that's going to lead the world in financial services. We gotta get going.”
