Canadian Businessman Bashes Bitcoin, Despite His Previous Optimism
Just the other day, Kevin O’Leary, who also goes by the nickname ‘Mr. Wonderful’, appeared on CNBC to give his thoughts on Bitcoin (BTC). His nose for “crap” purportedly served him well on the segment, which was Tuesday’s “Squawk Box” episode. As we reported, the Canadian businessman who is valued in the hundreds of millions called Bitcoin a “digital game”, rather than an investment, currency, or newfangled asset class. He then dubbed BTC “worthless”, noting that the lack of liquidity and market share of Bitcoin is an issue in his eyes. As he put it, Bitcoin is “crypto crap”. Well put, we guess?
He then explained that he once put $100 into Coinbase, bought the exchange’s basket of assets vehicle, and then proceeded to lose $70. This loss doesn’t deem something a bad investment per se, but let’s give O’Leary the benefit of the doubt here.
In a weird twist of fate, the businessman was recently revealed to have expressed cautious optimism towards the cryptocurrency market in 2013. Spotted by fundamental analyst Ceteris Paribus, O’Leary appeared in a 2013 segment on Canadian news outlet CBC to talk about Bitcoin, which had then just suffered a 60% drawdown… in a single day. And surprisingly, he was somewhat bullish.
During his three-minute showing, O’Leary claimed that he sees Bitcoin as a bet against central banks and that it is “here to stay”, looking to the fact that it was then sported a market capitalization of $1 billion. He even quipped that he wouldn’t be against putting 2% to 3% of his personal portfolio towards BTC, citing it as a way to diversify his currency holdings. What?
This all begs the question, what happened between Bitcoin and O’Leary over the past five years? Did he miss out, is he looking to accumulate more, or did he forget entirely about the cryptocurrency? Right now, no one is all too sure.
But if the market rallies again, and O’Leary is called on to impart some information about this space, maybe we can finally figure out what exactly is going on.
Skeptic Turns Believer
In a similar fashion, Mark Mobius, a legendary investor, has flipped from bear to bull on the leading cryptocurrency. In a Bloomberg podcast released this week, the 80-something founder of Mobius Capital Partners LLP., he claimed that Bitcoin will be “alive and well”, well, well (repetition was intentional) into the future. As we reported previously, Mobius remarked that there is a need for Bitcoin, looking to the fact that there “definitely [is] a desire among people around the world to have the ability to transfer money easily and confidentially. I believe Bitcoin and other currencies of that type are going to be alive and well.”
Well what did ya know? A bear turned bull, and a bull turned bear on the same day.
Title Image Courtesy of Noah Silliman Via Unsplash
