Shark Tank star and millionaire investor Kevin O’Leary may be changing his tune on Bitcoin.
O’Leary, who has been a vocal and longtime critic of digital assets, tells CNBC that he bought a small amount of crypto three years ago.
“I have a crypto wallet. I really do, and I like it. Let me just check what it’s worth. I’ll tell you how this happened. I was lecturing at Harvard one night to the graduating class. They challenged me to be an investor in crypto and I said, ‘You know what, I have no problem with that. In fact, I’ll risk $100 dollars. I’ll buy every single crypto that’s out there that was available three years ago on Coinbase.”
O’Leary says he bought equal amounts of Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), XRP, Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Stellar Lumens (XLM). He says the experience left him a fan of Bitcoin, but not the rest.
“Now what’s it worth today? Remember, I put in $100. [Now it’s worth] $88.97. What happened? How come I didn’t make a ton of money? Because not all cryptos are created equal. Bitcoin is great, all the rest are crypto crap.”
O’Leary argues that cryptocurrencies are not “backed by anything” and believes he should be able to get back the money he has lost on his investment.
“So here I am at $88.97 – who do I call to get my money back? Oh no, there isn’t anybody. That’s the problem. This is not backed by anything, it’s just backed by your faith, and the challenge with crypto is it’s engineered scarcity. That’s why I don’t really love this crypto stuff.
You have to guess which coin’s going to move and how they’re going to engineer scarcity, but it’s not really an institutional product. But I really would like to know how to get back that [$11] that I’ve lost. Call me.”
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