Famous investor Kevin O’Leary says he will only buy bitcoin sustainably mined in countries that use clean energy – not “blood money” mined from China.
“I see two types of currency in the next year or two,” he told CNBC’s “Capital Connection” program on Monday. “China’s blood coins (e) clean coins mined sustainably in countries using hydroelectricity, not coal.”
Bitcoin mining consumes a lot of energy and about 65% of the world’s bitcoin was mined in China in April 2020, according to the Statista.
“I’m going for the clean coin side,” said O’Leary.
The president of O’Shares ETFs once called bitcoin “rubbish”, but changed his mind more recently and said he would allocate 3% of his personal portfolio to cryptocurrency, according to a CoinDesk report.
O’Leary said he was “inundated” by institutions asking if he was buying “Chinese blood currency” after he said he wanted to invest in bitcoin.
I don’t buy coins unless I know where it was extracted, when it was extracted, where it came from. Not in China. No coin of blood for me.
Kevin O’Leary
O’Shares ETFs President
Increasingly, many large institutions impose restrictions on the assets they will hold in order to comply with environmental and corporate governance rules. Concerns include human rights and carbon emissions. O’Leary said whether the products are made in China is also a consideration.
“All of these issues … have now surfaced in bitcoin,” he said. “Institutions will not buy currency mined in China, currency mined using coal to burn electricity, currency mined in sanctioned countries.”
The institutions are saying that they do not want to endorse China because of human rights issues, he added.
O’Leary said personally that he is working hard to ensure that every coin he owns is a claim.
“I don’t buy currency unless I know where it was extracted, when it was extracted, where it came from,” he said. “Not in China. No blood coin for me.”