Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary, aka Mr. Wonderful, says U.S. crypto regulations will not come out until after the midterm elections. He explained that President Joe Biden “is not interested in discussing crypto” when his approval ratings have sunk to record lows. O’Leary also cited other factors, including double-digit inflation and high food and gas prices.
Kevin O’Leary on Crypto Regulation, Biden’s Policy
Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary talked about bitcoin and cryptocurrency regulation in an interview with Stansberry Research, published Friday.
He was asked how far away the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is from approving a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).
“It’s a long way away,” O’Leary replied. “That’s not what’s going to happen first. I think what’s going to happen first is we are going to see policy on stablecoins.” He cited two bills that have been proposed for the regulation of stablecoins. One was introduced by Senator Bill Hagerty and the other by Senator Pat Toomey.
Noting that a bill on stablecoins will be easy to pass after the midterm elections, he emphasized:
Nothing’s gonna happen until after the midterms. Biden is not interested in discussing crypto when his poll ratings are, you know whatever it is, sub-31%. That’s not a place where he wants to go, so you’re gonna have to wait until after the midterms.
Mr. Wonderful noted that when Biden issued the encouraging executive order on crypto, his ratings were higher. A new poll shows that President Joe Biden’s approval rating dipped to the lowest point of his presidency in May; only 39% of U.S. adults approve of his performance as president.
The U.S. midterm elections are scheduled for Nov. 8. If the Republican Party gains control of either or both chambers, it will have the power to thwart the president’s plans.
O’Leary explained that crypto is not one of the “issues that when you are declining in the polls, you become a champion of. That doesn’t help you.”
Noting that “The market is correcting … People are getting gas at the pump, going to the driving season, at unheard-of prices the last 20 years. The price of protein’s up 20% to 40%,” the Shark Tank star said:
Biden’s facing close to double-digit inflation … He’s not sitting around worrying about crypto.
In addition, O’Leary described that there are a lot of different proposals coming out of the SEC around climate change, crypto, and bitcoin mining. “So it’s a very volatile situation right now,” he said.
Mr. Wonderful was also asked if he thinks this crypto winter will be a long one and where the market will head now.
“The forecasts for bitcoin have never been accurate. No one’s been able to forecast its volatility,” he opined. “And you know, the speculation that it was going to be a hedge against inflation was just flat out wrong.” He continued:
I’d argue that the volatility of bitcoin is going to remain very akin to what Amazon was for the first 15 years — 30% to 50% corrections every 12 months.
He explained the reason was that “There was no institutional support in the early days of Amazon.” The Shark Tank star asserted: “That’s the same right now for bitcoin … People talk about institutions owning it. That’s just not true. They don’t own any of it and they won’t until the SEC rules on it.”
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Kevin Helms
A student of Austrian Economics, Kevin found Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests lie in Bitcoin security, open-source systems, network effects and the intersection between economics and cryptography.
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