Kevin O'Leary says under Trump, crypto is out of its 'cowboy era'

• Kevin O'Leary said that crypto is going to "become part of all the sectors of our economy."
• The "Shark Tank" star said the industry is entering a "new phase" under President Donald Trump.
• Earlier this month, Trump signed an executive order establishing a strategic bitcoin reserve.

"Shark Tank" star Kevin O'Leary said crypto is stepping away from its "cowboy era" in President Donald Trump's second term.

"The reason they're not comfortable with it right now is they've watched the cowboy era of crypto, but all the crypto cowboys are in jail or out of business," O'Leary said in an interview on Fox News' "My View with Lara Trump" which aired Saturday.

"So now we're in a new phase. There's a new tone with the government. Trump has put it forward," O'Leary continued.

Crypto faced a reckoning back in 2022 when the cryptocurrency exchange FTX imploded. The company's founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March 2024 after being found guilty of seven counts of wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy charges.

In April, Changpeng Zhao, the founder and CEO of Binance, another crypto exchange, was sentenced to four months in prison after pleading guilty to money laundering charges.

But O'Leary believes that the turmoil and uncertainty surrounding the industry will come to an end under Trump.

"They're going to provide regulations to allow this to become integrated with the financial institutions of America. It's going to become a payment system, an investment vehicle. It's going to become part of all the sectors of our economy," O'Leary said in his interview with Fox News.

To be sure, O'Leary is no stranger to crypto.

"I have millions of dollars, 20% of my portfolio is now in cryptocurrencies and blockchain," O'Leary, who was a paid spokesperson for FTX, told CNBC in March 2022.

Trump was initially a skeptic of cryptocurrencies. During his first term, Trump wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that he was "not a fan" of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, adding that their value "is highly volatile and based on thin air."

But, Trump began to warm up to the sector during his 2024 presidential campaign. Besides headlining a bitcoin conference in Nashville in July, Trump's campaign also started accepting cryptocurrency donations.

After winning the election, Trump appointed venture capitalist and former PayPal COO David Sacks as his AI and cryptocurrency czar, a newly created position. Trump said Sacks would also lead the Presidential Council of Advisors for Science and Technology when announcing his appointment in December.

Earlier this month, Trump signed an executive order to establish a strategic bitcoin reserve and a digital asset stockpile. The reserve will consist of bitcoin and digital assets seized from criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings.

"The U.S. will not sell any bitcoin deposited into the Reserve. It will be kept as a store of value. The Reserve is like a digital Fort Knox for the cryptocurrency often called 'digital gold,'" Sacks said of Trump's order in an X post published on March 6.

Representatives for O'Leary and the White House did not respond to requests for comment with Business Insider.