Let's get to the big story breakdown.
A week for the history books.
This week, gold, Bitcoin, and the major US stock averages all seeing new record highs.
Bitcoin topping 126,000, with Bulls calling for an early kickoff to October.
And at a time when questions are swirling about valuation and AI bubbles, where are the opportunities?
Well, joining us ahead of the holiday weekend is Kevin O'Leary, chairman.
Of O'Leary Ventures and also known as Mr.
Wonderful.
Happy Friday and thank you so much for joining us, Kevin.
So let's start out by looking at crypto.
We saw Bitcoin clear that 126,000 level, and it's not just about the token or the technology.
It's also about infrastructure, isn't it?
So tell us first and foremost, why does sustainability matter to you when it comes to the mining of Bitcoin?
Because institutional investors have decided that they'd like to see efficiency in how these data centers are powered.
I mean, at the end of the day, crypto, digital payment systems, Bitcoin, all of it is based on power, and the focus today is where to get the power.
So you have to go all around the world looking for the lowest cost power in jurisdictions where you can get permits to build data centers.
In addition to that, you have to do it for less than 6 cents a kilowatt hour, which is extremely difficult to do when you've already got ratepayers on the grid, the library, the hospital, people's homes.
You can't just steal the power and raise their prices 20%.
It just doesn't work.
So the world is starting to look at places like Finland and Norway and Canada.
And other places where power is generated by either nuclear power or hydropower or stranded natural gas, and that's what I'm, that's what I'm doing.
I'm investing in deals that have those metrics because I own the coin obviously, but I want to own the infrastructure, so the exchanges and there's a company called Bitzeero that operates in Finland that is very efficient on power and sustainability.
I'm a shareholder in that, and it all fits together because there's so much optimism and you're seeing this reflected in asset prices.
To get towards the Clarity Act, which is a little stalled right now, but I think it'll be back on the books in 6 weeks, which is the old Infrastructure Act which comes right off the heels of the Clarity Act, which gave us digital payment systems with USDC and tether and stablecoins.
There's a lot of momentum.
That's what I'm trying to say.
And so as as an investor, I'm hedging my bets in many different places.
Yeah, and I think that's key, Kevin, and as you mentioned, crypto mining data centers are massive energy guzzlers and more companies are exploring crypto as part of their treasury treasury strategies as well.
And you just mentioned Bit zero here, so tell me in what areas are you seeing actual opportunity, including energy as well as data centers.
Well, bit zero is really, although it's many people consider it a data center company, I buy it as an investor as a power play because what that company has done for the last 5 years is to go get power contracts that are midterm and long term at attractive prices before they do anything else.
They get the power contract from the government.
Whether it's the national government of Norway or Finland and then the domestic region, the municipality that they're going to build the facility in, they get all that worked out.
And once you have the power, then you know the economics of whether you're going to do Bitcoin mining or you're going to use data center or AI compute.
All of those options are open to companies that first get power contracts and so Bitzero is a power play.
It's one of our larger holdings in infrastructure.
Across the asset classes though, I think since you and I last talked, I've been increasing my concentration in a few tokens as opposed to having, as I used to have 27.
I don't need that anymore because I've realized you can get the full volatility, the full alpha, the full price exploration and transparency with just 4.
That's all you need.
And so for me it's Bitcoin obviously for 25%.
Um, for the longest of time, and you just quoted the price of Ethereum, it's it's still the granddaddy in terms of level one chain.
Solana has got a lot of interest in it, but there's nothing wrong with those two, and I own those two as well, except When Enterprise is now finally after 12 years starting to talk about going on chain, neither of those are fast enough.
You can wait minutes for a transaction on Ethereum and the same with Solo because they're single lane highways.
And so I just got back from Singapore.
I'm always trying to skate to where the puck is going to go.
Uh looking at development for enterprise, the big box retailers, for example, the stock exchange, where are they putting their bets because that's where I want to invest as well, because they're looking at speed and security.
Those are the two metrics they care about.
And then I find I find that all roads from security and speed are are leading toUI, which is the Japanese pronunciation domestically we call it sui.
But this chain was founded by Evan Chan, who left Facebook years ago and formed Mist and Labs.
That community is on fire because they're solving for speed for enterprise right now.
The Greek stock exchange is running on SUI.
I mean, nobody knows that, but I found that out in Singapore and many other financial institutions are saying, well, how are they doing that?
Same with inventory management, it's almost instantaneous because it's a multi-lane highway, almost unlimited number of lanes, as opposed to the restriction of Solana or Ethereum.
So yes, I'm investing in that and that's a new conversation you and I have not had, but that is going to get a full weighting in my holdings.
Yeah, so Kevin, I'm so glad that you're joining us on the heels of your trip to Singapore.
It is indeed conference season, so we know a lot of events are taking place across the globe.
So you mentioned Bitcoin, but I do want to get your take on gold just because we've been seeing quite the rally in that precious.
All gold soaring to new record highs and easily surpassing that 4000 level this week.
So given what we're seeing in terms of gold, where does that actually fit into your portfolio and I'm sure that maybe perhaps some of your labubus are also wearing gold now.
You know, gold is one of my, one of my only holdings that doesn't have yield.
It's a full 5% weighting of which 2.5% is actually held in bullion and right now the bullion is controversial, as you know, it's a trade dispute between Switzerland and the United States, a 39% tariff precisely because The Swiss have 70% of the gold bullion market.
For example, I'm just, you know, one investor.
I don't hold anybody's gold except the UBS 100 g bars and the kilogram bar, and it has to be UBS with the assay cert on it.
I mean, everybody wants that around the world.
And so even American investors want that.
And so the Swiss basically from two different refineries in Switzerland make all that stuff.
The US is very unhappy. and slammed that tariff on it.
They want the Swiss to do Swiss gold in the United States.
We'll see how that all works out.
But the point is you can own gold in the bully and you pay for the storage as I do, and you also can get volatility or at least be able to rebalance using an ETF like GLD, and there's others, but the point is it's working because the world is focused on trade dispute.
On debt, on volatility, and gold is a safe haven.
People used to poo pooh it.
I mean, I've owned gold forever and it's, it's, and I'm just maintained a 5% weighting.
I'm either buying up to 5% or selling down to 5, and my goodness, I've had to do some selling.
It's had a, you know, meteoric rise, but it's at 5%.
But so is Bitcoin.
They've been great.
They've been great.
But, but my head is sort of looking now at what I would call Wall Street crashing into AI, crashing into blockchain.
That's the next big thing is how are we going to see financial services go on chain, and that's what that suey bet is all about, I think.
I think they're going to win on speed and security, and, and I, I really learned that in Singapore, as you mentioned.
That I have never seen a conference like that last week.
I mean, you know, I attended the Sui Fest, which is like a shark tank where all the community came up with their ideas and we awarded them cash.
You engineers.
The the best and the brightest now are developing for that chain, so SUI is Watch, watch theaters, theaters near you.
What's going to happen there?
Yeah, Kevin, we'll keep a close eye on that and hopefully our next interview will be focused on SUI but of course, while I have you here, I do have to ask you about hard assets, physical assets including collectibles and the business of sports.
So no doubt.
Sports is big business, but so is the class of alts, and that is the world of rare sports cards.
So tell us what's in your collection in addition to that nearly $13 million Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant jewel autograph card.
Well, since then we've invested even more.
Hasn't closed yet, but probably the next time we talk, I will bring yet cards even more valuable than that one. my strategy with this and my syndicate is to only buy thee uniques the same way in my watch strategy.
I'm a Peace unique guy.
That's where I think the best capital appreciation is.
So we've been able to do something remarkable, um.
There were 3 cards known in the world in this collection.
I'd love to tell you more about it, but we're gonna save it for the next interview because I haven't closed it yet.
Uh, but these cards have never been in the same room together ever, and that's about to change.
There's a little tease for you.
And they'll be it'll be in the Wonder Shine index.
Yeah, and I know you have a passion for collectibles like watches and pens, and I understand that you began researching sports card and you're also building that sports card index similar to your watch collection.
So I have to ask you, how does a sports card reach that level of cultural as well as financial value when you're comparing it to a Pollock, a Picasso or one of your favorites, an FP journey watch?
Yeah, yeah, you know, that's a, it's a very good question because I was skeptical too, um, for about 2 years and my team did research on trying to compare the sports cards collectible market over the last 11 years to the contemporary and modern art market where I already participate with Warhols and.
Uh, you know, various pieces that, that, that I bought and the advice I was always given in the collectibles market by the auctioneers, uh, when it came to modern art and, and, uh, contemporary art.
Don't bother buying anything that isn't.
Extremely coveted already proven market products that have already traded at extraordinary prices because the prices basically never go down, they only go up.
They stall out for a while, but the trend is always up and to the right, but only with the rarest pieces and lo and behold, the same thing happened with sports cards.
Um, the only reason that that, uh, Kobe Jordan, dual logo man sold for over $12 million.
It's a piece unique and so that once sold for $75,000.
It's identical to a to to have bought a Picasso back in '66 versus paying $140 million for it now.
Same painting.
Um it's just, it's a piece unique.
It's a Picasso oil and so that is the equivalent of the thinking in terms of investing that.
I'm I'm very comfortable with that.
We've syndicated its ownership because the 3 owners were about to compete in the auction and in the last minute decided to just do joint ownership so that we had a higher chance of owning it and that worked for us and since then we've bought many other cards and we're gonna be showing them um and bringing them to market, you know, every couple of weeks when we've got them secured.
We're building out the index with diversity, but there is no unproven card.
In the in the index, they're all ones that have proven over time to have been accelerating in price because of their piece uniqueness.
Well, Kevin, we will have to leave it there for today, but since the last time you and I were on air, I just wanted to let you know that I have actually acquired an authentic Lebubu, so not a fufu.
So I just wanted to share that with you, Kevin, and hopefully next time you will be joining us in person here at the New York Stock Exchange again.
So thank you so much for joining us and have a great weekend, Kevin.
Maybe maybe my Labubo can meet your Lebobo and we can have boo bots.
What do you think of that?
Yeah, that would be great.
Like we should do that co-anchoring absolutely.
You're Lebubo and my Labubu co-anchoring at the New York Stock Exchange.
Well, great to have you here, Kevin.
Thank you so much for joining us.
