Kevin O’Leary Of Shark Tank Fame Insists NFTs Will Soar In ’22
Kevin O’Leary, an accomplished businessman, investor and host of “Shark Tank” is in the news for his take on NFTs. O’Leary believes ’22 will be the year of NFTs. In fact, O’Leary went as far as stating NFTs will surpass Bitcoin in the year ahead. O’Leary, the chairman of O’Shares Investments, revealed to Yahoo Finance Live that he believes NFTs have legitimate value as they make it easy to digitally account for the inventory, authenticity and ownership of tangible items in the real world.
As an example, O’Leary points to NFTs’ ability to digitally record ownership of items such as vintage watches, pieces of art, sports trading cards, memorabilia and other valuable assets. The shark went on to detail how he and fellow collectors and business professionals are tasked with the challenge of inventory management and authentication.
The hope is that NFTs will facilitate such challenges, making it that much easier to authenticate items of considerable value including vintage watches. O’Leary revealed the process to determine if a vintage watch is actually authentic chews up a significant amount of time and energy. The rise of NFTs has the potential to eliminate that work, providing immediate proof that a vintage watch or other valuable item is legitimate and worth a considerable sum of money.
O’Leary Has Criticized Bitcoin
It is particularly interesting to note O’Leary has gone out of his way to refer to Bitcoin as “garbage” in prior years. However, O’Leary now says investing in crypto such as Bitcoin and other alternative stores of value such as NFTs is akin to investing in Google and Amazon when they first hit the scene. The shark explained how investing in Google and Microsoft is essentially an investment in software. He stressed how Bitcoin is not a tangible coin but a form of software. The underlying blockchain is also software that serves as a digital store of value and a means of securing that value in digital form.
O’Leary predicts investors will be willing to invest in software as it is used as a tool to bolster productivity, provides a valuable service and facilitates economic transactions across the globe. The shark also indicated that federal regulators will provide guidance in terms of cryptocurrency regulation in the year ahead, stating, “If we make it regulated, if we get institutions into it and find a way for them to be compliant, there’s trillions of dollars going to come into this space, because it has a pragmatic use.”
Full Disclosure
O’Leary’s comments on NFTs and crypto are certainly bullish yet it must be noted he has a conflict of interest. O’Leary is invested in the industry with positions including WonderFi (WONDF) that recently purchased Canada’s top crypto exchange. O’Leary also has a position in Immutable Holdings (HOLD.NE) that is the full owner of NFT.com and the digital payments platform referred to as Circle. In the sprit of full transparency, it must also be noted O’Leary is a paid endorser and spokesperson for the FTX crypto exchange.
O’Leary Anticipates NFTs And Crypto Will Expand In ‘22
The grumpy shark delved into how NFTs and crypto are likely to extend well beyond their current realms in the year to come. He noted the United Arab Emirates government, the Canadians and the Swiss are warming to the idea of NFTs and crypto. O’Leary anticipates plenty of money will flow into those geographies in the year ahead.
Though the shark is quick to admit crypto is highly volatile, especially when juxtaposed with tech stocks, it is a risk worth taking. As cryptocurrency holders are aware, Bitcoin dropped 40% below its high in November as the entire crypto industry has declined to start ’22.
