Benzinga | Sep 14, 2021 12:01PM EDT

Kevin O'Leary Wants To Double His Crypto Holdings, Predicts 'Trillions Of Dollars Waiting To Come On Board'

"Shark Tank" investor Kevin O'Leary wants to up his portfolio allocation to cryptocurrencies from 3% to 7%.

What Happened: In an interview with CNBC on Monday, O'Leary said that he plans to "at least double" his cryptocurrency holdings by the end of 2021.

"I want to raise my exposure to crypto -- currently at 3% -- to 7% by the end of the year," said O'Leary.

"This is not going away, this is the new asset class," he added.

O'Leary said he expects that once regulators come to some definitive decisions on cryptocurrencies, the asset class could see an influx of money from a much larger pool of investors.

"Now we know that the regulators have pushed back on the lend product from Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ:COIN). And that is a slowdown in what is emerging as a really interesting space where people can take their cryptocurrencies and actually make interest. When the 10-year is making you less than inflation, you start to look to alternatives. And that's why stablecoins are becoming interesting," he said.

"We want the regulator to actually make some decisions about crypto because none of us in financial services want to actually be cowboys about this."

According to him, if the regulator finally allowed financial services companies to call Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) an asset class and put it into an exchange traded fund in the U.S., a significant amount of money could flow into the leading digital asset.

"I figure there would be another trillion dollars worth of buying into Bitcoin," he said.

"I think at the end of the day, over the next couple of years, that could happen. That's why there's so much interest."

BTC Price Action: At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $46,796.91.

Photo: Thought Catalog on Unsplash.