Kevin O’Leary used to call bitcoin ‘garbage’ and now announces billions of investments in the most popular cryptocurrency

O’Leary says he wants to at least double his stakes in cryptocurrencies by the end of 2021 and predicts that ‘trillions of dollars’ could pour into the market if the cryptocurrency becomes a new asset class. O’Leary, president of the O’Shares ETF, said he is optimistic about cryptocurrencies and wants more of them in his portfolio.

"I want to increase my exposure to cryptocurrencies from three percent to seven percent by the end of the year," he told CNBC. But he added that investors want US authorities to make decisions on regulating cryptocurrencies.

‘I don’t want to interfere in the crypto if the regulator says it’s wrong,’ he said. 'I can't afford to be in the hinterland, I can't afford not to follow the rules.' The U.S. government is in the process of developing regulations for cryptocurrencies at a time when more and more countries are legalizing bitcoin. Last week, El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt it as a legal tender. O’Leary said he expects regulators to recognize cryptocurrencies as an institutional asset class, but it is unclear when that will happen. He added that there is also a lack of infrastructure for compliance compared to traditional asset systems.

However, he predicts that ‘trillions of dollars of capital will board the ship’ when regulators finally approve cryptocurrencies as an institutional asset class.

In particular, for bitcoin, if regulators allow financial services companies to treat it as an asset and if bitcoin-based exchanges in the U.S. are approved. ‘This is not going through, this is a new asset class,’ he concluded.

By: Olivia J. - Zexron