Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary embraces Labubu toy, trashes NFTs as hype.
* Kevin O’Leary calls NFTs a “fad” but is betting millions on rare sports cards and collectibles like a $13M Kobe-Jordan card and Louis Vuitton’s Labubu toy.
* He believes tokenization will bring collectibles like art and sports cards “on chain” under his vision of “Wall Street on chain.”
* Bitcoin and Ethereum remain his “gold standards,” making up nearly 90% of his crypto portfolio alongside bets on Circle, Coinbase, and Robinhood.
Kevin O’Leary, the Canadian businessman best known as the sharp-tongued star of Shark Tank, has always been a visionary investor. On TV, “Mr. Wonderful” earned his reputation during Shark Tank by spotting breakout winners — though not always investing. For instance, both he and Shark Daymond John showed interest in Scrub Daddy, but Lori Greiner ultimately secured the deal with $200,000 for 20% of the company
Off-camera, O’Leary has long balanced his portfolio between high-growth bets and hard assets like art, luxury watches, and, more recently, cryptocurrency.
O’Leary has never been shy about embracing new markets. In recent years, he became a vocal supporter of digital assets, calling Bitcoin and Ethereum his “gold standards.”
But he has now turned his back on non-fungible tokens (NFTs), a sector he once believed could surpass Bitcoin. “NFTs turned out to be a fad,” O’Leary said in an interview with CoinDesk. “I’m only buying assets that are physical assets… That [NFT] fad came and went. I’m very fortunate I didn’t get involved in that because I never understood it.”
O’Leary wasn’t always a skeptic. On Jan. 5, 2022, he predicted that NFTs could one day be bigger than Bitcoin. At the time, the market was surging — by April 2022, NFT trading volumes had hit a record $16 billion. Today, however, that figure has collapsed over 60%, reaching $5.9 billion in market cap. By comparison, Bitcoin remains a $2.2 trillion asset class.
From NFTs to Kobe and Jordan
Instead of NFTs, O’Leary is sinking millions into rare, physical collectibles. He revealed he co-purchased a one-of-a-kind dual Logoman sports card featuring Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan for $13 million.
“The majority of the returns over 20 years have accrued to the collectors who bought the piece uniques,” O’Leary explained, likening the strategy to his art and watch investments. He partnered with two other investors rather than bid solo.
“I’d rather own 33 and a third of it than zero.”
This isn’t O’Leary’s first foray into collectibles. He has also showcased a Louis Vuitton Labubu collectible, the quirky plush toy made famous by Chinese brand Pop Mart — even parading it on Shark Tank. He pointed to the Labubu craze as proof that collectibles can outperform traditional benchmarks like the S&P 500, with some reselling for thousands of dollars on platforms like StockX.
Why tokenization, not NFTs
Though he’s out on NFTs, O’Leary isn’t dismissing blockchain entirely. In fact, he believes the same rare cards he’s buying today could be tokenized in the future.
“It would be much easier to deal with and manage them in an index that way,” he said.
For O’Leary, that vision is part of what he calls “Wall Street on chain” — using blockchain infrastructure to modernize how assets are managed, improving transparency, liquidity, and trust in markets that still rely on intermediaries.
That’s why he’s careful to separate tokenization from NFTs. “Where is the asset? Where can I put my white glove on and go touch it? That’s what you can’t do with an NFT,” he said. A blockchain record tied to a physical card or a Warhol painting, however, makes sense in his view.
Bitcoin and Ethereum still rule
If there’s one thing O’Leary hasn’t soured on, it’s crypto’s biggest names. On X this week, he revealed that Bitcoin and Ethereum make up nearly 90% of his portfolio.
“My two largest positions are Bitcoin and Ethereum, and together they capture almost 90% of the entire crypto market,” O’Leary wrote. “Beyond that, I’ve built strategies to generate yield on top of my holdings, just like dividends or bond interest. That’s why I consider BTC and ETH the true gold standards of crypto.”
He also invests in infrastructure companies like Circle, Coinbase, and Robinhood, betting on the plumbing of the financial system as much as the assets themselves.
