What to know : Mark Cuban said he has sold most of his bitcoin holdings after concluding it failed to act as a hedge against a weakening dollar and geopolitical turmoil, particularly during the recent Iran conflict. The billionaire investor, who once described bitcoin as a superior version of gold and held a crypto portfolio heavily weighted toward it, said gold has recently surged while bitcoin fell, undermining his thesis. Cuban now describes bitcoin as a disappointment compared with Ethereum, which he still views more favorably, and he dismissed most other cryptocurrencies as “garbage,” underscoring a broader debate over bitcoin’s role as “digital gold.”
Billionaire investor Mark Cuban said he has sold most of his bitcoin holdings after losing confidence in the cryptocurrency’s role as a hedge against weakening fiat currencies and geopolitical instability.
Cuban, who's net worth is about $10 billion, said bitcoin’s price behavior during the recent Iran conflict challenged one of the core reasons he owned the asset during an episode of sports podcast "Portfolio Players," where he mainly discussed professional sports and his ownership of the Dallas Mavericks.
“When all this 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. Well, gold just blew up... bitcoin dropped. And every time the dollar dropped, bitcoin should've gone up ... and it just didn't do that,” Cuban said.
The comments mark a notable shift for Cuban, who for years had publicly defended bitcoin as a superior version of gold because of its fixed supply and decentralized structure.
In a 2021 interview with “The Delphi Podcast,” Cuban said his crypto portfolio consisted of roughly “60% bitcoin, 30% Ethereum and 10% the rest.” At the time, he argued bitcoin’s scarcity made it a stronger store of value than gold and said he had “never sold it.”
Cuban also compared blockchain technology and smart contracts to the early internet era, at the time, particularly praising Ethereum (ETH) for enabling decentralized finance applications and NFTs.
His latest remarks suggest that enthusiasm has cooled, at least towards bitcoin.
“Not the hedge I expected it to be, and that was really disappointing, and so I'd say I'm more disappointed in bitcoin, not as disappointed in Ethereum and the rest ... garbage,” Cuban said.
The criticism comes as investors continue debating bitcoin’s role in global markets. Supporters often describe the asset as “digital gold” that can protect wealth during inflation, geopolitical instability or weakness in traditional currencies. Yet bitcoin has frequently traded more like a high-risk technology asset, rising and falling alongside broader investor appetite for risk.
Gold prices recently climbed amid heightened geopolitical tensions and concerns around the U.S.-Iran conflict, while bitcoin struggled to maintain momentum despite a weaker dollar.
Cuban’s comments also reflect a broader divide within crypto markets. While some investors remain focused on bitcoin as a macro hedge, others increasingly see value in blockchain networks such as Ethereum that support trading, payments and tokenized financial applications rather than functioning primarily as stores of value.
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