Kevin O'Leary thinks that after dealing with one blowup after another, American lawmakers are "fatigued" and "pissed" with the Bitcoin industry.
Entrepreneur and Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary has urged cryptocurrency exchanges to "get on board with regulation" if they want to "keep out of Gary Gensler and the United States Securities Exchange Commission's path."
O'Leary stated that American politicians are "fatigued" of crypto failures and that they would only become more brutal if corporations continue to disobey in an interview with TraderTV Live on February 20:
“You got to get on board with regulation, you got to stay out of the way of Gensler at the SEC and other regulators. Those hombres [men] in Washington are not happy. FTX poked the bear, the bear is awake, and it is pissed.”
He continued,
"since they're entirely unregulated and they keep issuing tokens that are useless, these senators are really tired, they're really tired of gathering every six months when the next crypto firm blows up and goes to nothing."
Venture funding for new #crypto projects is virtually dead and aftermarket trading for existing projects is at massive discounts. Reason? The #regulator is now regulating by enforcement, penalties & massive fines. The venture community has moved on to the next “big” thing, #AI pic.twitter.com/ChpjYIY9Dl
— Kevin O'Leary aka Mr. Wonderful (@kevinolearytv) February 20, 2023
O'Leary asserted that the industry should be on high alert and should comply with the SEC's order to immediately stop using Kraken's staking services and fine them $30 million.
The Shark Tank investor projected that over the coming few years, regulated trading platforms will make greater investments than their unregulated competitors in light of the recent regulatory crackdowns:
”I think the value of regulated exchanges is going to go up over the next few years, while the unregulated ones get put out of business or go to zero by the regulators.”
O'Leary recently acknowledged that he lost virtually all of the $15 million that FTX gave him as compensation for serving as its spokesperson.
Even though he acknowledged that FTX was a "bad" investment, Mr. Wonderful has persisted in defending former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, asserting that the contentious man ought to be presumed innocent until proven guilty and adding that he wouldn't rule out investing in the unsuccessful businessman once more:
I am not scared of investing in entrepreneurs that have had catastrophic failures. Failure is often the best teacher.
— Kevin O'Leary aka Mr. Wonderful (@kevinolearytv) February 7, 2023
The Shark Tank investor has already expressed displeasure with a few of the more unregulated, decentralized companies in the market.
On August 13, O'Leary stated that the Netherlands government was correct to detain Alexey Pertsev, the developer of the Ethereum-based cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash, because he "mess[es] with the primordial forces of regulation."
