‘Shark Tank’ Star Believes Stablecoin Regulation Would Be Bullish for Many Cryptoassets

Celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary (aka “Mr. Wonderful” on ABC TV series “Shark Tank“) explained in a recent interview what needs to happen before we see the next bull cycle in the crypto market.

According to a report by The Daily Hodl published earlier today, his comments were made during an interview with Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire that was released yesterday (when Bitcoin was trading around the $20K level).

The Shark Tank star said:

“I also believe that the one thing – just getting stablecoins [regulations] done… It’s the lowest-hanging fruit, but it would also signal to the rest of the crypto market, primarily the institutional investor market... I actually think, and this is speculation, that if you got this thing done with just stablecoins, and you got it regulated, it would increase the value of a lot of different positions that I have including Bitcoin.

“Because they would make the assumption because we are stuck in a $17,000 – $22,000 range on Bitcoin and we will never get out of that if we don’t get institutional support. It’s just going to sit there forever.“

On August 4, O’Leary told “Crypto Jeb” why he continues to invest in Bitcoin:

“The big opportunity, the mega opportunity for Bitcoin, and why I stay long and why I continue to allocate to Bitcoin is when we get policy and institutions can allocate to it – sovereign wealth and pension institutions – they’ll probably put 50 basis points, which is half one percent, up to one percent into Bitcoin, and that’s where you’re going to break out of this range. How high? Nobody knows because the demand is almost insatiable.

“Most large institutions want a position in crypto and they want the granddaddy crypto. They want Bitcoin. They can’t buy it yet… I service the institutions and the sovereign funds with indexing, and they all tell me they want to index for Bitcoin but they can’t buy it. They don’t have any policy. They don’t have any compliance infrastructure. So we got to get this done.“

And on July 6, during an interview on YouTube series “Meet Kevin”, the Canadian investor claimed that the crypto markets are in danger of a massive capitulation event that will trigger further panic among investors. O’Leary argued that the market has yet to reach a bottom, despite the collapse in prices over the past two months.

The Shark Tank investor also predicted that a “big guy” in the crypto industry would go to zero, which he called “very healthy” for the market:

“There’s no big guy who has gone to zero yet, and I think that’s still to come. Hard to say who it is because it’s going to be because of leverage and some kind of relationship in a counterparty holding that they have not disclosed, and I’m just speculating right now, but that would be very healthy for the market to have that happen.“

O’Leary commented on crypto brokerage firm Voyager Digital, which filed on July 6 for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after having a large-capital borrower default on a loan. O’Leary said the firm was too small to constitute his “big guy” going to zero, and said other crypto companies that have failed so far were likewise “irrelevant” in terms of market cap. 

O’Leary warned that the crypto markets could undergo a massive capitulation event in the near future that would create even greater uncertainty for investors. However, he gave the caveat that such an event would represent a great buying opportunity:

“I like a big, big panic event. That’s always been a great way to bottom. It’s towel throwing. It’s capitulation. It’s massive volume. It’s total panic in the streets and always a great buying opportunity.“

While the famed investor said it was difficult to predict when the event would happen, he argued that it would be a “very good thing for this industry.” He said a capitulation event would wipe out the broken business models and help the market unload its overly-leveraged speculation.