O’Leary: Clearer Crypto Regulations to Attract Institutional Investors

Kevin O’Leary, the chairman of O’Leary Ventures, recently spoke at the Consensus 2025 event, highlighting the challenges faced by the crypto industry due to unclear regulations. He noted that major investors, such as pension funds and sovereign wealth funds, are hesitant to enter the digital asset market because of the lack of clear regulatory guidelines.

O’Leary shared his personal experience with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), recalling how he received a Wells Notice for discussing debt tokenization, which temporarily kept him away from the SEC. However, with the exit of former SEC Chair Gary Gensler and the appointment of Paul Atkins as the new chair, the SEC has taken a more crypto-friendly approach, dropping many of the crypto cases that were initiated under Gensler’s tenure.

O’Leary emphasized the importance of clearer regulations, stating that the new SEC chair’s approach will facilitate the drafting of more supportive regulations for the crypto space. He expressed his desire for more regulation, believing that it will pave the way for institutional investors to enter the market.

O’Leary also predicted that stablecoin legislation in the U.S. will eventually pass, which will help digital payments grow and kickstart the next wave of crypto regulations, including the Market Infrastructure Act. Once the right regulations are in place, he expects a massive influx of capital into the crypto market, particularly into Bitcoin.

One of the most notable revelations from O’Leary’s speech was his significant investment in HBAR, the native token of the Hedera network. He also expressed optimism about other projects like ETH and Avalanche, viewing them as diversification opportunities. O’Leary believes that once these tokens are designated as securities or commodities, there will be a large influx of capital into the top five tokens.

O’Leary’s investment portfolio includes a range of cryptocurrencies, such as Hedera, Solana, and Polygon, along with other technologies that have strong real-world use cases. He envisions crypto becoming a key part of the economy within the next five years, making cross-border payments easier and cheaper.