Famous investor Kevin O’Leary says he will only buy sustainably mined bitcoins from countries that use clean energy and not “blood currency” mined in China.
“I see over the next year or two, two types of currency,” he told CNBC’s “Capital Connection” on Monday. “China’s blood currency, (i) net currency extracted sustainably in countries that use hydroelectricity, not coal.”
Bitcoin mining requires high energy intensity and about 65% of the world’s ticket was mined in China in April 2020, according to Statista.
“I’m going to face the clean coin,” O’Leary said.
The president of O’Shares ETFs once called bitcoin “junk,” but changed his mind more recently and said he would allocate 3% of his personal portfolio to the cryptocurrency, according to a CoinDesk report.
O’Leary said he was “flooded” by institutions asking him if he was buying “blood currency in China” after saying he wanted to invest in bitcoins.
I don’t buy currency unless I know where it was mined, when it was mined, where it came from. Not in China. No blood coin for me.
Kevin O’Leary
President of O’Shares ETFs
Increasingly, many large institutions impose restrictions on the assets they will own to comply with corporate and environmental governance rules. Concerns are human rights and carbon emissions. O’Leary said whether products are made in China is also a consideration.
“All of these issues … have now come to the forefront about bitcoin,” he said. “Institutions will not buy currency extracted in China, currency extracted with coal to burn for electricity, currency extracted in countries with sanctions.”
Institutions say they do not want to endorse China because of human rights issues, he added.
O’Leary said personally that he is working hard to ensure that every coin he owns is a complaint.
“I don’t buy currency unless I know where it was mined, when it was mined, where it came from,” he said. “Not in China. No blood coin for me.”