Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary Launches DeFi Investing Company

Kevin O’Leary, co-host of Shark Tank, has been very vocal about the viability of cryptocurrencies. So much so that he recently announced his plans to launch a decentralized finance (DeFi) investing company.

While many people in finance, business, and media have flip-flopped on the stability and viability of cryptocurrencies, few have been as newsworthy as Kevin O’Leary. In a 2019 CNBC interview, the reality television star and Chairman of O’Shares ETF called bitcoin “garbage.” He went on to say that “It’s a useless currency,” and called it a “worthless” digital gamble.  

Fast forward to March 2021 and O’Leary announced that he has allocated 3% of his portfolio to bitcoin, stating that BTC is “maybe” a currency. Then, last month, O’Leary jumped on board another crypto trend when he stated that non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are “going to be phenomenal” and are a part of the future of art and music. “When you record a track and it gets copied thousands of times, with this technology, the original artists or their estate after they pass will continue to get paid.”

Cut to the present day and O’Leary has announced yet another project in the cryptocurrency sector. On a recent episode of Anthony Pompliano’s “The Pomp Podcast,” O’Leary stated that he is currently a major shareholder of a new decentralized finance (DeFi) company, DeFi Ventures.  

The company was created to help investors learn and profit from DeFi. O’Leary stated that he believes DeFi will play a key role in the future of cryptocurrencies and has a growing interest in it. During the interview, O’Leary said about his plunge into DeFi,

“Imagine if I could have over these years had a five percent yield on my gold, that would have been incredible. Well, I can on my crypto so that’s really what I’m doing in DeFi and I think I’ve got the best team in North America.”

O’Leary has become enamored with DeFi after realizing it could enable him to make a profit by wrapping up digital assets into ETH chains. In contrast, strong capital in crypto investments does not provide the same earning potential. “There must be millions of people who have a little bit of coin who want to make some 4%, 5%, 6% on it.

”After coming to this realization, he put together a team of experts to look into the matter further that led him to DeFi Ventures. O’Leary stated that he led a $20 million fundraising round for the startup which he plans to rename WonderFi, inspired by his “Mr. Wonderful” moniker. “I am going to rename it to WonderFi because it is going to be my vehicle and I think it’s just the beginning of some great things to come.”