For years, Mark Cuban was one of crypto’s most high profile evangelists. After overcoming his initial skepticism, the billionaire entrepreneur and Shark Tank shark became something of a crypto fanatic, saying in 2021 that he spent 3-4 hours per day reading about the industry and brokering partnerships between crypto ventures and his Dallas Mavericks. Now, though, Cuban has become disillusioned. In a recent interview, he called crypto “disappointing” and complained that Bitcoin had “lost the plot.”
In a clip posted by Front Office Sports editor-in-chief Daniel Roberts, Cuban—who once said his portfolio included 60% Bitcoin, 30% Ethereum, and 10% of a smattering of smaller tokens—said he sold “most of” his Bitcoin.
“When all the shit hit the fan with the Iran war, Bitcoin was always the best alternative to fiat currency losing its value, and I always thought it was a better version of gold than gold,” Cuban said in the clip. “Gold just blew up and went to $5,000. Bitcoin dropped … It’s not the hedge that I expected it to be.”
Cuban’s diminished interest in crypto comes shortly after another billionaire Bitcoin backer appeared to cool on crypto. During a jury trial in his recent lawsuit against OpenAI, Elon Musk said some cryptocurrencies have merit, but most are scams.
Bitcoin is by far the largest crypto token by market capitalization, and its proponents frequently tout it as a form of digital gold that can serve as a hedge against inflation-prone fiat currencies. But as Cuban pointed out, gold has greatly outperformed Bitcoin over the past year, although Bitcoin has trimmed gold’s lead over the past three months. Bitcoin has lately been trading in the $75,000 range after temporarily eclipsing $80,000 after Congress made progress on an important crypto bill known as the Clarity Act.
While Cuban is “disappointed” in Bitcoin, he is “not as disappointed in Ethereum,” which is the second-largest crypto that can be used for hosting financial applications. Notably, Bitcoin has greatly outperformed Ethereum over the past five years.
Cuban saved his strongest criticism for smaller cryptocurrencies, however.
“The token stuff? The memecoins?” Cuban mused near the end of the clip. “Garbage.”