Crypto shark Kevin O’Leary opens up about his crypto holdings and strategy

• Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary says that he’s interested in investing in projects with economic value and potential.
• O’Leary believes that for huge institutional money to flow into crypto, there should be clear regulatory frameworks in place.

Kevin O’Leary, the Canadian businessman popular as “Mr. Wonderful” recently shared how he is quite optimistic about the developments taking place in the crypto space and where he is betting his money.

In his recent interview with CoinTelegraph, O’Leary spoke about some of his crypto holdings. Of course, while we know that O’Leary holds 5 percent of his portfolio in Bitcoin, he shared some other assets as well! O’Leary said that he is holding Hedera Hashgraph ($HBAR). Besides, he added that he also holds Polygon (MATIC) praising its founder Sandeep Nainwal for his vision of reducing the gas fee and effectively reducing the barrier to entry for new investors.

Related: Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary all set to double crypto holdings in next quarter

O’Leary disclosed that he has recently initiated a fresh buy in Helium (HNT). Furthermore, he’s invested in other Ethereum Layer-1 competitors such as Solana and Avalanche. The billionaire investor said that he has a total of “32 aggregate positions” in crypto. “Some of them are the larger positions,” he added.

However, O’Leary took a dig at Ethereum saying it’s something “slow for me”. Thus, he went on to praise its competitor Solana, a project back by FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried. Interestingly, O’Leary said that he would only invest in projects with economic value and potential. Thus, he would stay away from projects like Dogecoin (DOGE), it’s like going to Vegas he says.

Kevin O’Leary on regulatory landscape and stablecoins

Kevin O’Leary believes that there are billions of dollars coming to the crypto industry, especially Bitcoin. However, he adds that regulatory agencies have to put a clear picture. “What we really need is for U.S. regulators to make policy, and then allocations will start, primarily in bitcoin.,” he said.

But he adds that until regulatory clarity emerges outright Bitcoin ownership by financial giants isn’t possible. He said that giant financial institutions with trillions of dollars in management will never put Bitcoin on their balance sheet unless they have regulatory rules. Furthermore, they have to deal with other compliance mandates on ESG and ethics.

However, O’Leary adds that he’s very much interested in policy coming for stablecoins. He believes that the U.S. politicians need to approve stablecoin to keep USD as the world’s reserve currency. Speaking to Kitco News, O’Leary said:

The great thing about getting stablecoins nailed down on a regulatory basis in the U.S. is that it creates a global currency backed by the U.S. dollar. It keeps the U.S. dollar as the currency of reference globally.

Furthermore, O’Leary has also invested a good chunk of his money in the Decentralized finance (DeFi) space. Besides, he is investing in crypto mining companies using 100 percent green energy.