Kevin O'Leary Believes Bitcoin Mining Will See Boom in Institutional Investment in Coming Years

Shark Tank investor and chairman of O'Shares and Beanstox Kevin O'Leary aka Mr. Wonderful has shared his plans to invest in mining company stocks, but with a specific focus on companies that use sustainable energy. During a recent interview, O'Leary shared a few interesting snippets of stories from his recent travels to the Middle East, where he looked for ways to invest in Bitcoin mining and also floated the idea of starting his own mining operation sometime later this year.

The Canadian businessman shared his plans in an interview with Anthony Pompliano, noting that Bitcoin mining will see huge capital inflows over the next two, three years. O'Leary says he's been able to talk to investors across various jurisdictions, especially in the Middle East and the lesson learned from these travels is that a host of investors are looking at investments in Bitcoin mining through their sovereign funds.

While he predicts a majority of countries will eventually begin mining Bitcoin, O'Leary believes investors will want to look at ways in which mining activity supports environmental sustainability. He reasons that this is because funds will want to steer off recent controversy relating to Bitcoin mining and its adverse impact on the environment.

“Once a sovereign fund decides it is going to invest in Bitcoin, it's going to want to mine it sustainably and ethically,” he said. He notes that ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) demands and other compliance issues are top of the list for these investors. Other than that, these non-financial factors are a part of his own considerations before investing.

It's also the approach O'Leary will look to apply when deciding how he's going to invest in the sector, he noted. The celebrity investor also revealed that he has for a long time envisioned running a crypto mining operation, noting that he would “probably do it in this calendar year.”

On what mining companies need to do to attract investors, O'Leary says regulatory compliance is a must. The companies also need to ensure they involve the local communities, with a proper and clear understanding of how some of the returns go back to the community.

He also noted that a lot of institutional capital will be flowing into crypto mining over the next couple of years, following the likes top existing mining companies like Marathon Digital Holdings, and Riot Blockchain.