Kevin O'Leary Says 'Volatile' Bitcoin Is 'Speculative'—But Stablecoins Have 'Real Value'

Renowned investor and media personality Kevin O’Leary made a sharp distinction between Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and dollar-denominated stablecoin on Monday, attributing the latter’s value to its backing by U.S. Treasuries or T-bills.

Why O’Leary Thinks Stablecoin Have Value

O’Leary took to X, sharing a clip from his recent appearance on Fox News, in which he described Bitcoin as a “speculative asset,” prone to volatile price swings.

In contrast, he pointed out that “stablecoins have value” as they are backed by reserves of cash and cash equivalents, including T-bills.

Tether (CRYPTO: USDT), the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin by market capitalization, holds over $141 billion in U.S. Treasuries, although an independent audit has never verified these numbers.

Let's separate Bitcoin, which is a speculative asset, some call it digital gold, but its price goes up and down and it's volatile. Let's separate that from stablecoins, which are very interesting product for financial services. Stablecoins have value because they're backed by the… pic.twitter.com/gqnHbNNvgm

— Kevin O'Leary aka Mr. Wonderful (@kevinolearytv) May 18, 2026

O’Leary also noted that stablecoins offer near-instant transfers at low cost compared with slow, expensive traditional systems like FedWire.

“With stable coins, all you’re doing is really expediting transfer to about one and a half seconds at a fraction of the fee, and you’re backed by the US dollar,” O'Leary, also known as "Mr Wonderful," stated.

Read Also: Kevin O'Leary Asks Who Is 'Messing' With Efforts To Build US Power Grid, AI Data Centers: 'It's Our Friends, The Chinese Government'

A ‘Big Opportunity’

O’Leary then highlighted the untapped potential of tokenizing S&P 500 elements like contracts, inventory, and logistics on blockchain, deeming it a “big opportunity.”

“So if one of them emerge, and the way you would know it emerged is at least one company in every 11 sectors of the economy would standardize on that blockchain,” the “Shark Tank” star said.

Mr. Wonderful’s Crypto Mantra

O'Leary has consistently stressed the importance of owning the underlying infrastructure that powers cryptocurrencies.

He has been a known investor in cryptocurrency infrastructure companies, including Circle Internet Group Inc. (NYSE:CRCL), Coinbase Global Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN), and Robinhood Markets Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD).

O’Leary is of the view that owning Bitcoin and Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) alone is sufficient to capture 97.5% of the cryptocurrency market's volatility and yield, calling them the true "gold standards" of cryptocurrency.