MIAMI, FL – Kevin O’Leary says Wall Street’s tokenization boom is largely hype until Congress finally gives the crypto industry the rules it has been waiting for.
“Tokenization will never be adopted by institutional indexers, ever. Nor will bitcoin, which remains a marginal asset for the big guys,” O’Leary said at Consensus in Miami, arguing that large investors still consider most digital assets uninvestable without clear federal regulation.
Speaking at Consensus Miami 2026, the investor and “Shark Tank” personality argued that regulatory uncertainty continues to prevent large financial companies from fully adopting blockchain-based assets.
He said the turning point will come only when the United States establishes a formal legal framework for digital assets. “It has to comply with global standards within the [Securities and Exchange Commission] with an actual passage of a bill,” he said. “When that happens, everything will change.”
The comments come as Wall Street firms are increasingly experimenting with tokenization – the process of converting assets such as stocks, bonds or funds into blockchain-based digital tokens that can be traded continuously and settled instantly. Proponents argue that the technology could modernize financial infrastructure by reducing settlement times and reducing costs.
But O’Leary said institutions still need legal certainty before committing significant capital.
He pointed to stablecoins as an example of how regulation can accelerate adoption. Referring to recent US legislative efforts, O’Leary said stablecoins were adopted “almost immediately” once policymakers passed the GENIUS Act.
“Instead of wasting three days, we transact in minutes at a fraction of the cost with full compliance and transparency,” he said, describing cross-border payments using stablecoins.
O’Leary also argued that institutional investors have drastically reduced their focus within the crypto markets. “97% of the total value of the entire market is simply BTC and ether (ETH),” he said, adding that many smaller tokens have been “massacred.”
He described a growing divide between speculative cryptoassets and blockchain infrastructure with real enterprise adoption.
According to O’Leary, the biggest long-term opportunity remains finding a blockchain platform that large corporations standardize on for applications such as logistics, contract management or inventory systems.
“Show me the adoption on the platform that becomes a moat,” he said.
The investor also linked the future of blockchain and AI to infrastructure in general, arguing that energy and data centers may ultimately prove more valuable than digital assets themselves.
“Power is more valuable than bitcoin,” O’Leary said.
