The Cloud Mining Empire: Why Kevin O'Leary Bet on 26,000 Acres of Crypto Infrastructure

The business magnate and Shark Tank investor is repositioning his strategy: instead of speculating with tokens, he is buying land and energy. His view on cloud mining and data centers reveals an uncomfortable truth about the future of the crypto market — infrastructure matters more than most digital assets.

Kevin O’Leary recently controlled an impressive portfolio: 26,000 acres of land spread across multiple regions, with 13,000 acres already disclosed in Alberta, Canada, and another 13,000 acres in undisclosed locations that are in the licensing phase. His goal is to turn these lands into infrastructure hubs ready for bitcoin mining, cloud mining for AI computing, and large-scale data processing operations.

The investor has already demonstrated his conviction by investing in Bitzero, a company operating data centers in Nordic countries and the US, offering both bitcoin mining and high-performance computing. But his strategy is not to build — it’s to prepare. “My job is not necessarily to build a data center,” O’Leary explained. “It’s to prepare permits ready for immediate use of everything mentioned above.”

The Land and Energy Strategy That Surpasses Tokens

While many see cloud mining as a speed game of computing power, O’Leary views it as a game of land and energy scarcity. His lands are being developed with all necessary infrastructure: abundant energy, water, fiber optics, and air rights — all ready to be leased as soon as they are operational.

The calculation is mathematical: he claims that some of his energy contracts, offering prices below six cents per kilowatt-hour, are more valuable than bitcoin itself. This is the real differentiator — while tokens fluctuate and disappear, energy contracts and access to low-cost land offer tangible stability.

O’Leary is not shy about criticizing the sector: he estimates that approximately 50% of data centers announced in the last three years “will never be built,” describing the race as land grabbing without any understanding of what is necessary. Most companies do not own land, permits, or energy contracts before announcing ambitious projects — a mistake he is not making.

His crypto portfolio accounts for 19% of his total investments, but this allocation is not evenly distributed: 97.2% of the entire crypto market volatility comes from just bitcoin and ethereum, according to his analyses.

Why Bitcoin and Ethereum Are the Only Ones That Matter to Institutions

O’Leary’s shift in perspective on most altcoins is compelling: he states that “all coins considered useless are still down between 60% and 90% and will never recover.” A recent report from Charles Schwab corroborates this view, indicating that nearly 80% of the estimated $3.2 trillion market value of cryptocurrencies is tied to fundamental blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

The institutional factor is decisive. While newly launched crypto ETFs attract retail, O’Leary argues that they “simply do not represent anything” in the context of institutional asset allocation. “The numbers show that you only need to hold two positions to capture 97.2% of all volatility in the entire crypto market since inception, and they are just bitcoin and ethereum.”

With bitcoin trading around $88,35K (down 0.85% in the last 24 hours) and ethereum at $2,96K (down 1.36%), these two assets continue to absorb institutional capital while thousands of other projects compete for crumbs.

Regulation as a Catalyst: What’s Missing for Mass Adoption

So, how to attract institutional capital beyond bitcoin and ethereum? The answer, according to O’Leary, is regulation. A bill on the structure of the crypto market currently being drafted in the US Senate is his focal point — but he has identified a critical obstacle.

The current law contains a clause that prohibits yields on stablecoin accounts, a restriction O’Leary describes as “an uneven playing field” that unfairly favors traditional banks. This provision was enough motivation for Coinbase to withdraw its support for the bill in early January, after generating $355 million in revenue solely from stablecoin yield offerings in the third quarter of 2025.

“Until we allow those who use stablecoins to offer yields to account holders, this law will probably be stalled,” O’Leary argued. Change is necessary not only for exchanges like Coinbase but also for stablecoin issuers like Circle.

The investor remains optimistic that the bill will be amended. When that happens — and he believes it will — a new channel for massive institutional allocation into bitcoin and cryptocurrencies will open. In the meantime, he continues to make his bet: buying land, securing energy, and preparing the infrastructure that the true winners of the next decade will use to dominate cloud mining and decentralized computing.