Early cryptocurrency investor Nikki Beesetti said that going forward, she plans to cash out her crypto assets early to “reap the benefits and the rewards.”
“Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary, while discussing the fallout from the bankruptcy of crypto exchange FTX, explained how he went from calling crypto “garbage” to that this, causing the “murder” of his money.
“The facts have changed,” he said Thursday.
After the governments of Canada, Switzerland and Australia all backed the cryptocurrency, O’Leary said he saw an opportunity.
“Wait a second,” he said. “The world is changing. I have to be an investor.”
O’Leary said he felt “getting involved” with FTX would give him “an inside spot” in the company.
The ‘Shark Tank’ star also revealed he lost millions after the collapse of FTX. His most recent comments came just weeks after he said he would always support disgraced FTX founder Sam-Bankman Fried if given the chance.
The ‘Shark Tank’ investor opened up about the FTX debacle after saying he would back Sam Bankman-Fried again.
“I put about $9.7 million into crypto. I think that’s what I lost. It’s all zero. I don’t know because my account was deleted a few weeks ago . All the data, all the coins, everything. Then I also lost the money I had invested in the stocks. Those are zeros too,” O’Leary said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “.
And that was just a fraction of it, O’Leary pointed out. The “total contract” with FTX was “just under $15 million…all inclusive”.
The deal also included a “group of agents” from the powerful Screen Actors Guild, according to O’Leary.
But not everyone took pity on O’Leary, who served as FTX’s spokesperson before the company’s rapid downfall. FOX Business host Charles Payne criticized O’Leary and others like him for “self-pity”.
“‘Oh, I lost a lot of money.’ Nobody cares how much you lost,” he said.
Grit Capital CEO Genevieve Roch-Decter also took aim at O’Leary in “Making Money” on Wednesday for telling her he would “invest again” in Bankman-Fried.
“I was shocked,” she told Payne. “He told me even after the facts came out of the bankruptcy proceedings that say Alameda Research and FTX, from their inception to the end of 2021…they lost money. They lost money. money by potentially using other people’s money. I don’t know how much bigger of an advantage you can have [than] do that. And Kevin says, I would always invest in him.”
Grit Capital CEO Genevieve Roch-Decter gives her take on investor-entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary’s response to the FTX scandal on “Making Money.”
O’Leary also appeared on the YouTube show “Crypto Banter” about three weeks ago, telling thousands of live viewers that “yes” he would invest in Bankman-Fried again. “He was one of the brightest traders in the crypto universe.”
But when asked about Bankman-Fried’s possible culpability behind Thursday’s FTX disaster, O’Leary changed the subject.
KEVIN O’LEARY SLAMMED FOR RESPONSE TO FTX COLLAPSE
“There is only the killing of my money in this case,” he said.
“It’s a murder of FTX money,” replied CNBC host Joe Kernen.
“It’s up to everyone,” O’Leary said, disagreeing with Kernen.
“If you mean he’s guilty before he stands trial, I just don’t understand it,” O’Leary added.
The Shark Tank investor went on to say that he remains “an advocate” for the crypto industry.
“The promise of crypto remains,” he said. “That won’t change him.”
EX-CRYPTO BOSS SAM BANKMAN-FRIED SLAMED FOR COMMITTING ‘PURE AND SIMPLE AND GOOD OLD FASHIONED FRAUD’
O’Leary said “The institutional interest in FTX on US stocks was incredible behind the scenes. The number of people who approached me saying ‘how can I get a piece of this deal’.”
But he stressed that the money he lost was all his, and no one else’s.
Barbara Corcoran, Daymond John, Mark Cuban, Kevin O’Leary, Robert Herjavec and Lori Greiner are the “sharks” on ABC’s “Shark Tank.” (ABC/Patrick Ecclesine)
“Not a single dollar that I lost is anyone’s money other than mine. It’s important to me,” he said.
“It was not a good investment,” he concluded. “I don’t make big investments all the time. Fortunately, I make more good ones than bad ones, but this one was bad.”
Bankman-Fried said he would testify before the House less than a week from today in a recent tweet.
“Rep. Waters and the House Committee on Financial Services: Once I am done learning and looking into what happened, I would feel like it was my duty to appear before the committee and explain myself. I’m not sure if that will happen by the 13th. But when it does, I will testify,” he said in a tweet.
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