Written by: Protos

Translated by: Chopper, Foresight News

Last Saturday afternoon, Mark Cuban made another prophetic statement about the crypto industry on social media: "Chips, as an asset class, will become the new cryptocurrency." This controversial ten-word conclusion quickly made headlines, garnering over 1.2 million views in just one day.

The comments section has turned into a collection of Cuban's past failures in predicting crypto markets. Over the past seven years, Cuban has repeatedly misjudged the price trends of crypto assets. He once proposed a valuation logic that benchmarked cryptocurrencies against bananas, and several tweets were later deleted. Even more embarrassing is that Cuban not only failed to predict crypto prices but also attempted to erase the evidence.

He actively promoted the Iron Finance liquidity mining project, which collapsed just days later, resulting in the token price dropping to zero; he also touted a so-called "no-risk" lending platform, which ultimately declared bankruptcy. Additionally, due to his own security negligence, he fell victim to a phishing attack, losing crypto assets worth six figures; earlier, he had also liquidated his Bitcoin holdings.

Before discussing the validity of Cuban's new assertion that "chip assets will outperform cryptocurrencies," let's review his series of failed predictions.

"I would rather hold bananas"

In a 2019 interview with Wired, Cuban claimed that Bitcoin's intrinsic value is even lower than that of baseball cards, comic books, or art. He made a statement that still gets cited today: "I would rather hold bananas, at least you can eat bananas. Cryptocurrencies can't do that."

A few weeks later, he told Forbes that Bitcoin "could never" become a reliable currency. When Cuban made his bearish comments on September 27, 2019, Bitcoin was priced at about $8,200; since then, it has increased by 670%.

Deleted tweets comparing cryptocurrencies to the internet bubble

In January 2021, Cuban tweeted that the current cryptocurrency trading resembles the internet stock bubble of the late 1990s. This tweet was later deleted by him.

Months after deleting the tweet, during a Twitter audio space event, Cuban changed his tune, calling Bitcoin the "best store of value" and revealing that he holds Bitcoin.

206% annualized liquidity mining project eventually goes to zero

Understanding Cuban's experiences in June 2021 helps explain why he wavered in October of that year, trying to mend his relationship with the Bitcoin community. That summer, Cuban plunged into liquidity mining. He published a blog sharing his experience as a liquidity provider for the DAI/TITAN trading pair, claiming about a 206% annualized return. DAI is a stablecoin issued by MakerDAO, and TITAN is the governance token for Iron Finance. Just a few days later, the price of TITAN plummeted from around $64 to nearly zero.

Embarrassed, Cuban deleted the entire blog post. Iron Finance characterized the collapse as a massive bank run event, and the project never recovered thereafter.

Cuban admitted in another deleted tweet that he, like other investors, suffered losses. He later told Bloomberg via email: "While I was affected by the project's exit, at the end of the day, it was my own lack of precaution."

Voyager Digital is not "nearly risk-free"

Continuing to face setbacks did not deter Cuban. In October of the same year, his Dallas Mavericks announced Voyager Digital as the team's first crypto sponsor, with a five-year contract valued at over $25 million.

During the promotion period, Cuban claimed that Voyager's returns "are the closest to risk-free products you can find in the crypto space." In July 2022, Voyager Digital filed for bankruptcy, and investors soon launched a class-action lawsuit, accusing Cuban of helping to promote what appeared to be a Ponzi scheme.

A court in Florida dismissed the lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds last December; in June of this year, investors filed an appeal to restart the case.

Repeatedly promoting Dogecoin

In March 2021, the Mavericks became the first NBA team to accept Dogecoin (DOGE) payments. On the day Cuban announced the news, Dogecoin surged 20%. On August 15 of the same year, he tweeted again: "The flaws and simplicity of Dogecoin are precisely its greatest strengths," leading to another 18% surge in Dogecoin that day.

However, just two days later, facing public opinion, he downplayed his previous promotions, claiming he only held $494 worth of Dogecoin.

MetaMask wallet mishandled leading to coin theft

In September 2023, a phishing attack led to the theft of around $870,000 from one of Cuban's crypto wallets. He revealed that the cause of the theft was downloading a tampered version of the MetaMask installer. Reports at the time indicated that he promptly contacted Coinbase, which helped prevent an additional $2.5 million in assets from being stolen by the hacker.

This also became another negative example in Cuban's series of controversial crypto dealings.

Liquidation of Bitcoin holdings

He then fully turned bearish. In May of this year, Cuban stated: "Bitcoin has lost its way." He lamented that Bitcoin should have outperformed the rising gold during the same period.

The Bitcoin community flooded the comments section to refute him, while Cuban claimed he had sold at a high: "The lowest selling price was $88,000, starting to reduce my holdings from the $120,000 range."

This month, in an interview at the RAISE summit in Paris, he fully disclosed that he had sold 98% of his once multi-hundred-million-dollar Bitcoin position, retaining only a small amount of Dogecoin.

This weekend, Bitcoin was priced at around $63,000, far below the $88,000 sales floor he mentioned. After seven years of the "banana theory", project explosions, and platform bankruptcies, the only successful operation Cuban had in the crypto market was to exit at the right time.