Kevin O'Leary says he is buying crypto again and expects Bitcoin(BTC) to claim 1% to 3% of institutional alternative-asset allocations. Key Points: O'Leary says he is opening new crypto posit
Kevin O'Leary says he is buying crypto again and expects Bitcoin(BTC) to claim 1% to 3% of institutional alternative-asset allocations.
Key Points:
- O'Leary says he is opening new crypto positions ahead of the next market cycle.
- He calls the first major stock exchange to adopt a blockchain a pivotal moment for the industry.
- He expects the stalled Clarity Act to return a quarter or two after the midterms.
The O'Leary Ventures chairman told an interviewer at the Avalanche Summit in New York that he is "back in the saddle buying new positions, putting my bets on for this next cycle." The next phase of crypto investing, he said, is working out which blockchain wins broad adoption, and in which industry it happens first.
He can ask chief executives across sectors which networks their companies are weighing, but "none of them are saying the same thing." On Bitcoin, he sees institutions eventually parking 1% to 3% of their alternative-asset money in it, a share he measures against their gold holdings. He named no favored chain, no exchange and no figure for his own buying.
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O'Leary called the first major stock exchange to adopt a blockchain a "watershed moment" for the industry. Everyone else in the financial system, he argued, would then want that network to meet whatever compliance requirements the venue sets.
Big venues are already moving in that direction, and regulators have started clearing room for them. Intercontinental Exchange, parent of the New York Stock Exchange, agreed to invest in tZERO and license its blockchain patents for a platform designed for round-the-clock trading and instant settlement. Nasdaq and Kraken parent Payward, meanwhile, expect tokenized equity trading to begin in the second quarter of 2027.
O'Leary expects lawmakers to revive market structure legislation in the first or second quarter after the midterm elections, whichever party ends up controlling Congress. He gave the Clarity Act no chance in the Senate this week, where a Sept. 15 procedural vote failed 49-50, far short of the 60 required.
Tax policy, he argued, will eventually force the issue back onto the agenda. The House Ways and Means Committee advanced the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act in a 38-5 vote on Sept. 16, covering staking, mining, wash sales and broker reporting. "If you're going to provide a tax policy on this asset, you want more regulation, not less," he said.
His caution about Washington has deepened over the year, and in February he said some institutions balk at holding more than roughly 3% in Bitcoin because of quantum computing concerns.
In January he hoped market structure rules would clear Congress before the midterms, and by Jun. 10 he was warning on television that Bitcoin was "going nowhere until the CLARITY Act becomes law."
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