Businessman Kevin O’Leary, who appears on the reality show Shark Tank, appears to be backing down from statements he made in December, indicating that he could buy more Bitcoins.
In an episode of his YouTube series released today with the title “Why I am NOT investing in Bitcoin”, O’Leary spoke to Bitcoiner Anthony ‘Pomp’ Pompliano and called Bitcoin (BTC) a “giant hamburger from nowhere” in terms of its value as an asset. He argued that he would not be able to make “a meaningful transaction” using the crypto asset due to inconsistent regulatory structures around the world.
“I see the value of Bitcoin’s assets versus the asset value of all things traded and Bitcoin is still a hamburger of nothing – a giant hamburger of nothing,” said O’Leary. “I would say that this is the case is that you do not have all the institutions willing to play ball with this.
The star of the Shark Tank is not entirely against Bitcoin. He appeared on an episode of the Pomp podcast in December and revealed that he already had some BTC and could consider investing 1% to 2.5% of his portfolio in crypto assets in the future. In his YouTube video today, the businessman also said that Bitcoin had the potential to become “something of tremendous value” if regulators in different countries committed to digital assets:
“If there was an attempt to get Bitcoin itself or some other currency […] that it could be traded anywhere with the regulator agreeing to that and it would be agnostic – in other words, you could trade it to buy assets in Switzerland, trade it to buy assets in France, or England or the United States […] everyone would take that digital currency. “
O’Leary is known for inventing colorful but important nicknames. He had previously referred to digital assets as “cryptography” and Bitcoin as “non-real currency” and “unauthorized currency”.