Ether will always come second to Bitcoin, says Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary

Amid the price of Ether reaching an all-time high this week, businessman Kevin O'Leary still believes Bitcoin will stay on top of the token.

Speaking to CNBC yesterday, the Shark Tank star said Ether (ETH) was "always going to be number two" to Bitcoin (BTC) despite the token reaching an all-time high price of more than $2,600 at the time of the interview, and more than $2,700 at the time of publication. The price of Bitcoin, on the other hand, has been volatile in April, rising to a new all-time high of more than $64,000 while later falling under $50,000.

O’Leary said Ether was more likely to be used as a "tracking and payment system" but the price of the token made it too expensive for that purpose at the moment. He pointed out that institutional investors moving in on Bitcoin may be the driving force behind the crypto asset hitting all-time high prices this year, adding:

“Bitcoin will always be the gold, Ethereum will always be the silver.”

The Shark Tank star said he had owned crypto since 2017, announcing last month that he would be allocating 3% of his portfolio into Bitcoin. However, he has previously referred to digital assets as “crypto crap” and Bitcoin as “not a real currency.”

In addition, O’Leary has been a proponent for sustainable crypto mining, arguing against “blood coins,” i.e. cryptocurrencies unethically mined, which includes some in China. He has said his crypto investments would only include “clean” Bitcoin “under a mandate of 0 carbon.”