Kevin O’Leary, chairman of O’Shares Investments and co-star of ABC network’s "Shark Tank," had some not-so-wonderful news for crypto investors: venture funding for crypto projects has virtually dried up.
What Happened: O’Leary joined Trader TV’s livestream for an interview and said that regulations, including “massive fines,” are deterring prospective crypto investors.
Earlier this month, the SEC ordered Kraken, a prominent crypto exchange, to shut down its staking program and pay a fine of $30 million. This sends a message to investors that regulators are “cracking down” on crypto companies, making investments less attractive, O'Leary said.
There’s been added pressure from many senators to create a regulatory framework for the crypto industry following FTX’s collapse, in which hundreds of thousands of people lost their funds. In fact, just last week, Democrat Elizabeth Warren and Republican Roger Marshall introduced a bipartisan bill to combat money laundering in the crypto space.
"These senators are really — they're fatigued, they're really tired of gathering every six months when the next crypto company blows up and goes to zero,” O’Leary said. “And the regulators are being applauded on by the senators and the congressmen and women who are saying, what is this? We've had enough of this stuff."
Just because investor interest has dried up does not mean that O’Leary is completely done with crypto. In fact, he said sees it as a positive that WonderFi, O’Leary’s crypto exchange, is already regulated and added that regulated exchanges will increase in value in the future.
Photo via Shutterstock.
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