Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary Suggests Taylor Swift Missed FTX Deal Due To Exchange Going Bankrupt, But Is He Correct?

Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary took a dig at Taylor Swift, suggesting that the only reason she did not take the $100 million deal with FTX was because the exchange "blew up first." 

But, according to the Financial Times, FTX was in talks with the pop star months before the exchange's collapse in November.

What Happened: Swift made headlines for her diligent research of now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX before partnering with them, according to lawyer Adam Moskowitz. 

O’Leary spoke with YouTuber Kevin Paffrath on Thursday and commented on the state of cryptocurrency.

It’s currently “dead to institutional investors,” he explained, adding that the lack of clear regulations in the industry is keeping large investors from entering the market.

Earlier this week, tech investor Chamath Palihapitiya, a vocal proponent of Bitcoin, said that he also believes “crypto is dead” due to the lack of clear regulations in the industry. 

"We speak to sovereign wealth and pension a lot and they won’t touch crypto until regulation," O’Leary said.

See More: Top Indian Apps That Give Bitcoin, NFT Rewards

Why It Matters: Bitcoin BTC/USD is stuck in purgatory, O’Leary says. The price is unable to break out of the $17,000 to $35,000 range. There are only a limited number of people trading the coin back and forth, meaning that there is no new money coming into the market.

"It’s not an institutional product where they get a 5% allocation,” he says. “There’s no way to hold it."

One of the biggest “mistakes” is Coinbase’s COIN legal dispute with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, O’Leary says, calling it “a very bad political move” that will not further cryptocurrency’s cause. If O’Leary were a shareholder of Coinbase, which he is not, he would make his displeasure known to the board, he added.

Price Action: At the time of writing, BTC was trading at $29,215, up 0.79% in the last24 hours, according to Benzinga Pro.

Next: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin Trade Mixed After Arkham Intelligence Denies ‘Buggy’ Mt. Gox Alerts: Analyst Predicts Summer Surge For BTC