FTX paid spox Kevin O’Leary received $18M, previously called Bitcoin ‘garbage’
, 2022-12-14 12:35:15,
Media personality Kevin O’Leary testified Wednesday that the collapse of cryptocurrency firm FTX has a “silver lining,” that the industry is “culling its herd.
Kevin O’Leary, who served as a paid spokesperson for FTX, defended the merits of cryptocurrency despite the company’s downfall at a Wednesday Senate hearing, but he was not always a fan.
In a 2019 CNBC appearance, the investor known from “Shark Tank” railed against crypto, and Bitcoin in particular.
“It is a useless currency,” he said. “To me, it’s garbage, because you can’t get in and out of it in large amounts.”
He illustrated this by giving an example of how he tried – and failed – to buy Swiss real estate with Bitcoin.
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“They want a guarantee that the value comes back to the U.S. currency,” he said. “You have to somehow hedge the risk of bitcoin. That means it’s not a real currency. That means the receiver is not willing to take the risk of the volatility it has. It’s worthless.”
At the time, Bitcoin was valued at about $8,325.
Since then, O’Leary appears to have flipped on crypto. He acknowledged the change of heart during his opening remarks before the Senate Banking Committee.
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