‘Shark Tank’ Star Kevin O’Leary Says Bitcoin Could Hit $300,000 In 3 Years, But Under One Condition

Written by Paul Sacca on updated
Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary predicts bitcoin could hit $300,000 if regulations are dropped, institutions get into cryptocurrency

Kevin O’Leary is bullish on bitcoin. The Shark Tank star predicts that the most-popular cryptocurrency could hit a whopping $300,000 per coin within the next three years, but notes that one major development will need to happen to unleash the significant financial growth.

Bitcoin has had a rollercoaster ride in the past year – hitting a high of more than $47,000, but then freefalling to $35,000. But O’Leary said that bitcoin – which has a current price at publication of $37,779 – has the potential to hit $300,000 per coin. However, he added that in order for that landmark financial growth to happen that influential institutions jump on the cryptocurrency bandwagon.

“You want to talk about bitcoin going to $100K, $200K, $300K, it’s going to happen when institutions can finally buy it,” O’Leary said in an interview for Stansberry Research. “When they do get that go-ahead, the price of the coin is going to appreciate dramatically.”

The Canadian businessman highlighted the hurdles for bitcoin to reach its potential.

“That’s well-known because it just hasn’t been ruled by the regulator yet. So, as a proxy to getting exposure to bitcoin, they buy the equities of public bitcoin mining companies, Marathon, Riot, etc,” O’Leary said, according to Bitcoin.com.

“I can tell you with certainty right now because I service sovereign wealth funds and pension plans,” said O’Leary AKA “Mr. Wonderful.” “In the indexing business, for all the hype around bitcoin, none of those institutions own a single coin. And they are not going to until their compliance departments allow for the ESG mandates.”

“These institutions own Microsoft. They own Google. That’s software too, so it is very easy for them to get their heads around it,” the millionaire invester added. “As soon as it’s compliant, they will buy 1% to 3%, and that’s when the price is going to appreciate.”

“At some point in the next two to three years, the US regulator is going to make a statement about cryptocurrencies,” O’Leary predicted. “Once that happens, if I have a state fund or a retirement plan, I’m probably going to allocate one to three percent to it.”

O’Leary estimated that the seismic rise of cryptocurrency could “happen in the next two to three years.”

Shark Tank‘s Kevin O’Leary Went From Cryptocurrency Skeptic To Enthusiast

Earlier this week, O’Leary defended the cryptocurrency against critics.

“Bitcoin is not just a coin or currency, it’s a software. Institutions like to criticize me for investing in Bitcoin, but how I see it, if you hold big positions in companies like Microsoft or Yahoo, it’s all the same,” O’Leary wrote on Twitter.

In March of last year, O’Leary went from crytocurrency skeptic to touting bitcoin, and investing 3% of his portfolio into it.

“Is #bitcoin a currency? Property? An asset? Maybe all of the above,” O’Leary tweeted. “I’m going with a 3% portfolio allocation and am looking at investing in miners that can create coin under a mandate of 0 carbon so sustainably!”

In June, O’Leary said, “I don’t care if it goes down $20,000 or up $20,000. I’m not selling it. One bitcoin is one bitcoin. I’m in it for the long run.”

You can watch the entire interview regarding bitcoin with Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary below.

[Photo by David McBee from Pexels]