Kevin O’Leary, chairman of O’Leary Ventures, mentioned the crypto trade isn’t regulated sufficient — which is holding digital belongings again from true institutional adoption.
Talking at Consensus 2025 in Toronto on Thursday, O’Leary mentioned crypto belongings underneath administration (AUM) have hit a wall, which he attributed to a scarcity of regulatory readability that has prevented nearly all of sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and institutional buyers from investing meaningfully.
“I never thought I’d say this, but I want more regulation and I want it now,” O’Leary mentioned. “The good news is there’s a new sheriff in town: Paul Atkins at the [U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission].”
O’Leary mentioned Atkins, who was sworn in as chairman of the SEC final month, has already telegraphed that he’s pleasant to the crypto trade and can “regulate accordingly.”
Atkins replaces Gary Gensler, whose penchant for so-called “regulation by enforcement” drew the ire of many within the crypto trade. O’Leary mentioned Thursday that he revered Gensler’s consistency as a regulator.
“He said he was gonna sue you, and he sued you,” O’Leary mentioned. “He was consistent and you have to respect that.”
In a press convention forward of his keynote speech, O’Leary mentioned he’d acquired a Wells discover from the SEC over a decade in the past after talking about debt tokenization in a televised interview. He was cleared, he mentioned, however the expertise briefly scared him off partaking with crypto within the U.S.
“My first experience with crypto was over a decade ago, when I was on business cable, talking about debt tokenization,” O’Leary mentioned. “I get a knock on my door and it’s an enforcement agent from the SEC serving me a Wells notice. I shit my pants … The regulator was sending a message. I got the message”
Since Gensler departed the company in January, the SEC has carried out an about-face on its method to crypto regulation, making a Crypto Process Power spearheaded by crypto-friendly Commissioner Hester Peirce and dropping a bunch of open investigations and lawsuits towards crypto corporations that have been began underneath Gensler.
A friendlier SEC isn’t the one factor O’Leary is longing for on the subject of crypto regulation — he expects to see the passage of the GENIUS Act inside “months.”
“The minute that happens, it will signal the move to the next act, the market infrastructure act,” O’Leary mentioned. “And when that is determined and regulated, Katy, bar the doors — a trillion dollars will come in and index [bitcoin].”
