Kevin O’Leary, a venture capitalist who is also known as one of the key investors and a supporter who many times been outspoken about the FTX fiasco, has recently voiced some harsh opinions against unregulated crypto exchanges.
According to a post that the star of the television show “Shark Tank” made on Twitter on February 23, O’Leary predicted that digital asset exchanges would continue to fail unless the cryptocurrency industry were subjected to stringent new regulations.
O’Leary says more failures coming
O’Leary commented on the FTX collapse earlier in February, saying that he didn’t expect a lot more news or dialogue to come out of it other than about recovery but that the entire situation had “poked the bear in Washington,” as it drew the attention of the decision-makers to the need for regulating crypto, and that he didn’t expect a lot more news or dialogue to come out of it other than about recovery.
He also maintained his stance that the cryptocurrency market will witness an increase in the number of companies declaring bankruptcy, with projections of “another meltdown to zero” that will “keep happening over and over” and that regulation will reduce the impact that rogue players have on the market.
Most of the responses to his tweet suggested that O’Leary’s current views had much to do with his experience with FTX. This was indicated by blockchain architect MartyParty, who emphasized that “FTX was never a crypto exchange” but rather a “honeypot designed by a traditional finance criminal.” His tweet stirred criticism from the cryptocurrency community.
Others have mentioned that his tweet might have been a jab at Binance, as the venture capitalist hypothesized that FTX was put out of business deliberately by the competing cryptocurrency exchange while making a testimony to the Senate Banking Committee in December.
Deaton responds to O’Leary
At the same time, a defense attorney by the name of John E. Deaton, who is well-known in the cryptocurrency community for his coverage of the lawsuit between blockchain company Ripple (XRP) and the SEC, responded to O’Leary’s tweet by quoting it and implying that O’Leary lacked the authority to pass judgment on the cryptocurrency businesses.
In particular, Deaton referred to Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the founder of FTX. SBF is awaiting trial for multiple counts of fraud and has been referred to as “the Bernie Madoff of crypto” by prominent figures in the industry, such as Robert Kiyosaki, the author of “Rich Dad Poor Dad.”
