[Digital Today reporter Yoonseo Lee] Kevin O'Leary (케빈 오리어리) pointed to regulatory clarity as Bitcoin's next driver.

On June 10 local time, blockchain outlet U.Today reported that O'Leary saw pent-up demand from institutional investors as the reason the market did not react as strongly as expected even after Bitcoin broke its previous high.

He said large institutions such as pension funds, funds and sovereign wealth funds are still staying outside the market. These institutions still classify Bitcoin and other digital assets as peripheral assets, and they believe it will be difficult to enter in earnest unless regulatory uncertainty is resolved.

O'Leary stressed that the passage of legislation is a factor that could change the market structure. "The infrastructure bill must pass. Otherwise tokenisation will not be adopted into institutional indexes," he said. "Bitcoin, too, is still only a peripheral asset to big players, and bills need to actually pass so rules can be aligned within the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) framework," he argued. That means the market will change only after a global regulatory compliance foundation is in place.

He also said institutional money could move if the regulatory framework becomes clear. He said the market landscape could change immediately if legislation such as a clarity bill is implemented, and that a real driver for gains emerges only when institutions confirm policy signals.

Beyond Bitcoin, he also highlighted standardisation of blockchain across U.S. companies as an area to watch over the long term. Expectations that blockchain could change areas such as logistics, contract compliance and inventory management have persisted for a long time, but it has not yet been decided which network will become the corporate standard.

O'Leary said, "We have been saying for years that S&P 500 companies will go to blockchain for contract analysis, inventory management and logistics, but nobody knows which blockchain will be standardised." He added that if a network emerges that secures adoption across all 11 S&P 500 sectors, it could be among the biggest investment opportunities of this decade.

His investment strategy has also changed. He said he previously preferred a broad crypto portfolio but now holds only Bitcoin and Ethereum. He said he remains interested in alternative assets such as contemporary art and premium sports cards.

As a result, market attention is shifting away from Bitcoin spot flows themselves and toward whether legislative progress actually emerges that is enough for institutions to change internal investment standards. At the same time, in enterprise blockchain, which network becomes the cross-sector standard is also emerging as a long-term point to watch.

A lot of investors expected Bitcoin to take off after breaking through new highs, but in my view the real catalyst still hasn’t arrived. Large institutions, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds are waiting for regulatory clarity before making meaningful allocations to… pic.twitter.com/pEFrwEcueq