“Mr. Wonderful” Kevin O’Leary, the investor best known for his appearance on the TV show “Shark Tank,” recently appeared on Fox News and talked at length about his future investment plan.
He said he has spent a decade in the world of crypto investing and has come to the conclusion that Bitcoin (BTC), the first and largest cryptocurrency, needs to be separated from stablecoins.
Related: Explained: What is a stablecoin?
O’Leary slams banks for obstructing stablecoin rewards
A Bitcoin is a “speculative” asset with a “volatile” price movement but a stablecoin, as the name suggests, is stable in nature because it is pegged to a “stable” asset like the U.S. dollar, O’Leary underlined.
A USD-pegged stablecoin is backed by a 3-month U.S. Treasury bill, and it can be transferred anywhere in seconds, unlike a bank transfer, which can take days and the service is expensive, he added.
O’Leary gave the example of USDC, the stablecoin issued by the Circle Internet Group (NYSE: CRCL) of which he is an early shareholder, which expedites the process of money transfer at a fraction of the cost. These stablecoins also cement the dominance of the U.S. dollar, he added.
The investor also discussed the controversy surrounding stablecoin rewards in the CLARITY Act, which had the banking and crypto industries warring for months.
He said it’s “unfair” that those holding stablecoins don’t get to earn 3.2% yield against only 1% interest on bank savings. He hoped the matter would get resolved soon so that the market can move forward with the innovation.
More on Stabecoins:
O’Leary bets on Bitcoin and Ether
O’Leary reiterated his earlier conclusion that a crypto investor only needs to invest in Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) to capture 97% of the entire crypto exposure.
The rest of the cryptocurrencies are just what he called “poo-poo” coins.
With a market cap of $1.53 trillion, Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency. Though it hit the record high price of $126,080 on Oct. 6 last year, it was trading around 40% lower at $76,230 at press time.
Ether, with a market of $253.41 billion, is the second-largest cryptocurrency. It hit the record price of $4,946.05 on Aug. 24 last year but was trading 55% lower at $2,100 at press time.
