Shark Tank star and billionaire investor Kevin O’Leary is predicting that Bitcoin (BTC) will surge in value once regulatory clarity is in place.
In a new Stansberry Research interview, O’Leary says that Bitcoin could appreciate by several multiples from the current price once institutional investors are allowed to purchase crypto assets.
“At some point in the next two to three years, the US regulator is going to rule on cryptocurrencies. And they will rule first on stablecoins and Bitcoin itself… And the very large assets by market cap.
As soon as that happens, if I’m running a sovereign fund or a pension plan I’m going to allocate to it probably one to three percent. And I want to long Bitcoin when that happens.
You want to talk about Bitcoin going to $100,000, $200,000 $300,000, it’s going to be when institutions can finally buy it.”
According to the Shark Tank star, institutional investors need regulatory compliance and to meet Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) standards before they can invest in Bitcoin.
“I can tell you with certainty right now because I service sovereign wealth funds and pension plans and in the indexing business. For all of the hype around Bitcoin, none of those institutions own a single coin.
And they are not going to until their compliance departments allow for the ESG mandates to be ‘check the box on that’ and of course be compliant on the asset class itself. But when they do get that go-ahead, the price of the coin is going to appreciate dramatically.”
O’Leary says institutional investors will find it easy to purchase Bitcoin if it is categorized as software.
“If you think about Bitcoin being software, which is what it is, and these institutions own Microsoft, they own Google. That’s all software too.
So it’s very easy for them to get their heads around it as soon as it’s compliant. They will buy one to three percent. And that’s when the price is going to appreciate. And I think that’s going to happen in the next two to three years.”
Bitcoin is trading for $43,271 at time of writing.
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