Kevin O’Leary, the entrepreneur and investor best known for his role on the television program Shark Tank, says he has re-entered the cryptocurrency market and is once again putting capital to work. O’Leary made the announcement at the Avalanche Summit in New York, a conference for the Avalanche smart-contract blockchain, where he spoke with The Block on September 18, 2026, and laid out how he is positioning for the market’s next cycle. The re-entry carries history: O’Leary previously served as a paid ambassador for the FTX exchange and later said the platform’s November 2022 collapse and bankruptcy wiped out the money he had invested in it.

“I’m back in the saddle buying new positions, putting my bets on for this next cycle,” O’Leary said.

With that backdrop, O’Leary said the next phase of investing will revolve around a central question: which blockchain ultimately achieves widespread adoption, and in which sector of the economy that adoption first takes hold.

𝗕𝗨𝗟𝗟𝗜𝗦𝗛: Kevin O'Leary says he's back buying crypto for the next cycle Watching for a major exchange to adopt blockchain, a possible "watershed moment”. CEOs he talks to are weighing different chains, no clear winner yet. pic.twitter.com/qCgrsXBwyw

— Blockto (@TheBlocktoApp) September 18, 2026

No Consensus Among CEOs

O’Leary said he regularly speaks with chief executives across a range of industries about which blockchain their companies are considering. In his observation, none of them are converging on the same network. That absence of a clear favorite, he argued, is one of the key factors shaping the crypto market at present.

A “Watershed Moment” to Watch

According to O’Leary, the single most important development to watch is whether a major stock exchange adopts a blockchain. He characterized such a move as a “watershed moment” for the industry. In his view, once one exchange takes that step, the rest of the financial system would be compelled to follow its lead, and the broader financial ecosystem would be required to meet that exchange’s requirements — creating a ripple effect that would extend across the industry.

No major exchange has made that move yet, and O’Leary said he is watching closely for the moment it happens. Among the chief executives he speaks with, different chains are being weighed — and no clear winner has emerged yet.

Bitcoin’s Allocation Potential

Turning to Bitcoin specifically, O’Leary said the asset could eventually account for 1% to 3% of alternative-asset allocations. He drew a direct comparison to the share that institutions currently allocate to gold, suggesting Bitcoin still has meaningful room to grow within traditional portfolios as it moves toward a comparable role alternative assets. The access route already exists in the US: spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, approved in January 2024, hold the asset directly and trade in ordinary brokerage accounts, giving pensions, advisers, and funds a regulated way to build the kind of allocation O’Leary describes.

Regulation and the CLARITY Act

O’Leary also addressed the regulatory landscape, pointing to the CLARITY Act, which recently stalled in the Senate. The market-structure bill cleared the House in July 2025 and would split digital-asset oversight between the SEC and the CFTC; Congress separately enacted its first dedicated stablecoin law that same month. Despite the setback, he said he still expects crypto regulation to return, citing the fact that lawmakers are actively working on tax policy for digital assets.

“If you’re going to provide a tax policy on this asset, you want more regulation, not less,” he said.

O’Leary added that he does not expect the bill to pass before the midterms. In his assessment, when governments build a tax structure around an asset, they tend to pair it with greater oversight rather than less. That timeline leaves Senate action after the midterms as the next checkpoint for the stalled bill.

$1 Million Bitcoin, With a Quantum Caveat

In a separate interview, O’Leary laid out a scenario in which Bitcoin could hit $1 million — but he attached a firm condition to that prediction. The milestone, he said, would only come within reach if the industry can resolve the growing concerns surrounding quantum computing, sometimes referred to as “Q-Day.” The term captures the fear that sufficiently advanced quantum computers could eventually break the encryption that protects Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin’s security rests on elliptic-curve cryptography, and the US National Institute of Standards and Technology published its first finalized post-quantum encryption standards in 2024 as the building blocks for a migration to quantum-resistant systems.

“It will if it can resolve the doubt creeping in around quantum computing. Breaking the algorithms, and the chains and encryptions,” O’Leary said.

He noted that some investors are already making counter-bets on the issue by backing quantum computing startups as a security play. O’Leary said this is a theme he is watching as an investor, though he described it as separate from his main crypto positions.

AI Bets Focused on Power

Outside of crypto, O’Leary said his artificial intelligence investments are concentrated in power infrastructure rather than AI models themselves. His projects in that area span Norway, Finland, Alberta, and Utah, and also include uranium.

Markets moved around the time of O’Leary’s comments at the Summit: Bitcoin rose more than 4%, while Avalanche climbed more than 12%.

This article originally appeared on CoinCentral.