Global foreign exchange and payments platforms are lobbying hard against stablecoins, which stand to significantly disrupt their business models, investor Kevin O’Leary said during a keynote address at Consensus 2025.

Legacy forex and payments platforms often extract large fees for servicing cross-border cash transfers and stand to lose out on revenue if regulated stablecoins become accepted as a cheaper, faster alternative, O’Leary said at the Toronto conference. 

“Currency trading is a multi-trillion dollar market — and it’s old and ugly and inefficient,” O’Leary said, adding that “[ t]he biggest threat to that monopoly or oligopoly is a regulated stablecoin.” 

“Once that’s approved, the multi-trillion dollar FX market becomes efficient, transparent, and inexpensive,” he said. 

Stablecoin legislation

US lawmakers are working on legislation that stands to accelerate global stablecoin adoption, O’Leary added. 

US Senators are aiming to pass the so-called Genius Act — a framework for regulating stablecoins — before the end of May. “As soon as the SEC approves the stablecoin act, every regulator in the US’s circle — Abu Dhabi, Switzerland, England — will follow,” O’Leary said.

“Who’s worried about this? The financial services industry. They hate this idea, and they’re working very hard to stop that bill from happening right now,” he added.

O’Leary said regulatory clarity for stablecoins may be a precursor to broader cryptocurrency reform that could potentially unlock trillions of dollars in institutional capital.

“When this language comes out, people will see really good refinement, a lot of progress, on things like consumer protection, bankruptcy protection, and ethics,” US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said during an event hosted by Coinbase’s lobbying arm, Stand with Crypto.

As of May 15, stablecoins are collectively worth nearly $250 billion in market capitalization, according to data from CoinGecko. Tether’s US-dollar pegged stablecoin USDT is the leader, with a market cap of around $150 million, the data showed. It’s followed by Circle’s USDC, another US-dollar pegged stablecoin with a market cap of more than $60 billion.

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Celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary, aka Mr. Wonderful, has thrown his optimistic stance on the crypto future under President Trump’s regime.

In an interview with Fox News, the Shark Tank star stressed that crypto is out of the “cowboy era.” He argued that the asset class has entered a “new phase” under President Trump’s administration.

Kevin had a crypto conversation with American politician Lara Trump at the crypto-themed Pubkey bar in New York, that President Trump had previously visited.

“The reason they’re not comfortable with [crypto] right now is they’ve watched the cowboy era of crypto, but all the crypto cowboys are in jail or out of business,” Kevin noted.

He referred to the high-profile fraud cases in the industry, including the debacle of FTX crypto exchange. The entire industry faced a reckoning in 2022, following the collapse of the exchange. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is currently serving a 25-year sentence after being convicted of fraud and conspiracy in 2023.

Crypto to Become “Payment System, Investment Vehicle”

Additionally, Kevin O’Leary praised the recent pro-crypto moves by President Trump, adding that there is a “new tone with the government.”

He noted that crypto developments will “provide regulations,” which would allow cryptos to become integrated with American financial institutions.

“It’s going to become a payment system, an investment vehicle,” he told Lara Trump.

Further, he also believes that cryptos would become the 12th sector of America’s economy.

“It’s going to become part of all the sectors of our economy. We have 11 sectors. Eventually, I believe crypto will be the 12th.”

A New Era for Crypto Lies Ahead Under Trump Administration

The now-47th president recently signed an executive order to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. On March 7, the first-of-its-kind crypto summit was held with industry presence, including Strategy’s executive chairman Michael Saylor and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.

During Kevin’s conversation with Lara Trump, Pubkey co-owner Thomas Pacchia also expressed views on the future of crypto under Trump. He called the crypto’s leadership under former President Biden, “atrocious.”

“For four years, it was a very aggressive administration. I think the biggest win was just moving on from that and not getting stuck with another 4 or 8 years of that,” he stated.

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