President Joe Biden has called upon his administration to study and report on the environmental costs and potential benefits associated with cryptocurrencies and underlying blockchain technology.
Kevin O'Leary, chairman of O'Shares ETFs, sold out of all of his crypto mining investments on the news.
"It wasn't an all-out ban, so that's good news, but there is a huge landmine in that order for Bitcoin miners," O'Leary said Friday on CNBC's "Squawk Box."
He highlighted the climate discussions in the execute order, which he said is a direct shot at mining operations.
"What this bill is basically saying is we're gonna start considering climate in cryptocurrencies," O'Leary said. "Now, that's really bad news because all of these Bitcoin miners use carbon credits to offset their so-called use of carbon."
He mentioned Marathon Digital Holdings Inc MARA, HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd HIVE and Riot Blockchain Inc RIOT.
According to O'Leary, there's no way these companies can be audited.
"What's going to happen pretty quickly is it's going to be obvious to people that these companies can't cut it. There's no way they can prove they're not using carbon — bad news," he emphasized.
O'Leary "sold all of those stocks" as soon as he read the executive order. He expects Bitcoin miners to shift to using hydropower.
"The world is changing quickly on this ESG thing and it's here to stay," O'Leary said.
Although he cut all miners from his portfolio, O'Leary said 20% of his portfolio is still concentrated in crypto and blockchain technology.
$BTC Price Action: At publication time, Bitcoin BTC/USD was up 0.15% over a 24-hour period at $39,403.
Photo: Marko Ahtisaari from Flickr.
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