Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary Says 'Bitcoin Will Always Be the Gold,' Citing Interest From 'All Kinds of Institutions'

Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary, also known as Mr. Wonderful, says “Bitcoin will always be the gold,” outperforming other cryptocurrencies, such as ethereum, in the long run. He said “there are interests being brought out of all kinds of institutions” for bitcoin.

Kevin O’Leary Bullish on Bitcoin

Kevin O’Leary shared his thoughts about bitcoin and ether in an interview with CNBC Wednesday. While acknowledging that ether has been performing well lately, O’Leary insisted:

Bitcoin will always be the gold.

The chairman of O’Shares ETFs added that “Ethereum will always be the silver,” but emphasized, “that’s not a bad thing necessarily.” He did not mention other cryptocurrencies by name.

While noting that there is potential upside for Ethereum as it shifts to a new model, the Shark Tank star believes that Ethereum is primarily “going to be used as a form of tracking and payment system.” O’Leary pointed out, however, that Ethereum 2.0 has the potential to be “far more green in terms of how much energy it takes to create it.” Nonetheless, he insisted that it will never overtake bitcoin. “Will it ever take bitcoin? No,” he affirmed.

O’Leary revealed in February that he had allocated 3% of his portfolio to bitcoin after Canadian regulators approved bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). He explained that bitcoin proponents view the cryptocurrency as digital gold and a hedge against inflation that will appreciate over time.

Mr. Wonderful elaborated:

Now, bitcoin hitting new highs almost every week is proving that there are interests being brought out of all kinds of institutions now trying to figure out: Is it a currency? Is it an asset? Is a property? … That gives you an idea of the institutional and individual interest.

Early this month, O’Leary said that he is only interested in buying “clean” bitcoins that are mined sustainably in countries that use clean energy, not “blood coins” from China.