Venture Capitalist Kevin O’Leary Says He Would Never Purchase a Bitcoin ETF – Here’s Why

Prominent Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary went on record last week saying that he would personally stay away from Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

In a new interview with Fox Business, the venture capitalist says that he believes the fees associated with holding Bitcoin ETFs aren’t worth it.

However, O’Leary says the approval of the ETFs are positive in that they may get the ball rolling on more regulatory clarity in the US for the crypto and blockchain industry.

“They are almost identical, even though each of the vendors would tell you not. These are commodities, and there will be a price to the bottom on fees. You want to look at what the fee structure is. It’s anywhere from 21 basis points or 0.21% all the way to 1.5%. If you are a purist holding Bitcoin for the long-term as a digital gold, as I am, I would never buy an ETF.

Why would I pay these fees? It’s completely unnecessary and they add no value to me. The great news is, in this event, is it shows a march forward on regulation towards cryptocurrencies [and] in addition, I would hope this re-energizes Congress to look at digital payment systems… USDC for example, which is based on the US dollar as a payment system. That has been out there. The Stablecoin Act has been delayed, but now we have this momentous occasion, which is great, but we’re way early. We are in the first inning.”

According to the investor, only some of the ETFs that have been approved will survive the market in the long term. He predicts that the biggest players like Fidelity and BlackRock ultimately reign supreme.

“Regarding 11 of these ETFs, [there is] not a chance they survive. You should be watching assets under management. Maybe 2 or 3 will win. I would bet behemoths like Fidelity and BlackRock end up on top because they have massive sales forces.

But institutions don’t care about this, they don’t care because they would never buy an ETF, they’d never pay the fees.”

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