From "I'd Rather Have Bananas" to Selling 80% of His Bitcoin: Mark Cuban's Love-Hate Relationship with Crypto
- Core Thesis: In May 2025, Mark Cuban stated he had sold most of his Bitcoin holdings, arguing that Bitcoin failed to effectively hedge against a weakening US dollar and geopolitical risks, particularly underperforming during the Iran conflict. He declared that "Bitcoin has lost its way," reflecting an investment stance reversal from skepticism in 2019, to strong bullishness in 2021, to current disappointment.
- Key Elements:
- Cuban pointed out that during the Iran conflict and the surge in gold prices, Bitcoin instead declined and failed to respond to the dollar's depreciation, thus questioning its effectiveness as a safe-haven asset.
- During the 2021 bull run, Cuban transitioned from a Bitcoin skeptic to an enthusiastic advocate, publicly disclosing that approximately 60% of his crypto holdings were in Bitcoin and claiming he had never sold any.
- In June 2021, Cuban suffered significant losses from promoting and investing in the DeFi project Iron Finance (TITAN token), which saw its value crash to near zero within 24 hours, wiping out approximately $2 billion in protocol value.
- Between 2022 and 2025, Cuban was sued by retail investors for promoting Voyager Digital, accusing him of advertising a "Ponzi scheme." The lawsuit was dismissed by a Florida federal court in December 2025.
- Despite Cuban's recent bearish stance, data shows that since the US-Iran conflict began in February 2026, Bitcoin has accumulated gains of approximately 16%, outperforming gold (which fell about 15%), indicating that his judgment is highly dependent on the chosen time window.
Original Author: ChandlerZ, Foresight News
On May 21, billionaire entrepreneur and former owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, stated on the Front Office Sports podcast that he has sold most of his Bitcoin holdings. He believes Bitcoin has failed to effectively hedge against the risks of a weakening US dollar and geopolitical turmoil, especially during the recent Iran conflict. "When the Iran war caused this big mess, Bitcoin was always seen as the best alternative to fiat currency devaluation. I always thought it was better than gold. However, gold prices soared, while Bitcoin dropped. And whenever the dollar weakens, Bitcoin is supposed to go up, but it didn't do that."
"I think Bitcoin has lost the plot."
2019: Would Rather Have a Banana Than Bitcoin
Mark Cuban's public stance on crypto started with skepticism. In September 2019, during a video Q&A with Wired magazine, he said, "I'd rather have a banana than Bitcoin. At least I can eat the banana." The quote was later repeatedly referenced. At the time, he likened Bitcoin to baseball cards, comic books, and art, arguing it had no intrinsic value and emphasizing that crypto was too complicated for 99% of people.
In reality, he had entered the space earlier. In October 2017, Cuban admitted to Bloomberg that he had bought Bitcoin, treating it as an "interesting" portfolio holding. However, he stressed his position was very small and considered it speculative gambling, similar to collecting baseball cards or art.
2021: From Team Banana to Betting 60% on Bitcoin
The shift occurred during the 2021 bull run. That year, Cuban transformed from an onlooker into one of the most vocal crypto proponents.
In late January, he minted his personal series, "The RollUp 2021," on the NFT platform Rarible, featuring a GIF of himself dancing in a Mavericks jersey.
In March 2021, the Dallas Mavericks became the first NBA team to accept Dogecoin for tickets and merchandise. Cuban explained, "Because we can, and it generates a lot of PR." In the first month, the Mavericks sold about $122,000 in merchandise using DOGE. Two months later, DOGE hit an all-time high of $0.7375.
That same year, on The Delphi Podcast, he disclosed his crypto portfolio allocation: "About 60% Bitcoin, 30% Ethereum, 10% other," and emphasized, "I've never sold Bitcoin." His reasoning was Bitcoin's fixed supply and decentralization, making it a superior store of value compared to gold.
June 2021: A Lesson from Iron Finance
At the peak of the bull market, Cuban learned a hard lesson from DeFi.
In June 2021, he published a blog post titled "The Brilliance of Yield Farming, Liquidity Providing and Valuing Crypto Projects," publicly praising the algorithmic stablecoin project Iron Finance on the Polygon chain. He disclosed being a major liquidity provider for the DAI/TITAN pair, with an initial investment of $75,000. Days later, TITAN crashed from nearly $60 to near zero within 24 hours, causing the entire protocol to lose approximately $2 billion.
An Iron Finance analysis report stated the incident was triggered by large whale addresses starting to sell, causing user panic, leading to massive redemptions of IRON and sales of TITAN. Due to the mechanics of the 10-minute TWAP oracle, TITAN's spot price fell further compared to the TWAP redemption price, creating a vicious cycle. The more IRON users redeemed, the more TITAN was minted, continuously driving its price down. Eventually, TITAN collapsed to near zero, and Iron Finance paused USDC redemptions.
Following the incident, Cuban did not publicly disclose his exact losses. In an email to Bloomberg, he simply said, "The investment wasn't big enough to check every detail," and stated it represented a small portion of his crypto holdings. He added, "I got hit just like everyone else. Ironically, I had already withdrawn some, thinking their TVL was still growing, and then boom... Ultimately, I was lazy. This DeFi game is essentially about revenue and math, and I didn't calculate the key metrics properly."
2022 to 2025: Entangled with Regulators, Sued and Then Victorious
After the market cycle turned, Cuban's crypto life shifted from buying coins to legal battles and criticizing regulators.
Following the bankruptcy of crypto brokerage Voyager Digital in 2022, retail investors sued Cuban and the Mavericks, accusing him of using the team partnership to sell a "Ponzi scheme" to inexperienced young people. Cuban repeatedly criticized former SEC Chair Gary Gensler publicly, arguing, "Instead of forcing platforms to come in and talk, why not provide clear rules first?"
On December 30, 2025, a class-action lawsuit accusing Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks of defrauding investors by promoting Voyager Digital was dismissed. The lawsuit alleged that Cuban had made multiple false statements about the company before it filed for bankruptcy protection in 2022. Cuban and his legal team at Brown Rudnick stated in a declaration, "The lawsuit alleged violations under multiple state securities laws and consumer fraud statutes. On December 30, Judge Roy K. Altman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida fully dismissed the case."
In 2025, the billionaire also considered launching his own Memecoin but ultimately did not follow through. In his most recent commentary on cryptocurrencies, he expressed disappointment stemming from NFTs and Ethereum, although his dissatisfaction was not as intense as his disdain for the current state of Bitcoin.
One Man, Seven Years, Three Reversals
Since the emergence of the US-Iran conflict in February 2026, Bitcoin has still accumulated a gain of about 16%, while gold has actually fallen by about 15%, and Ethereum has risen by about 9%. Cuban saw the instant snapshot of the first few days of the conflict escalation. Over a longer time horizon, Bitcoin actually outperformed gold. This doesn't invalidate his disappointment, but it illustrates that his judgment this time was still a highly time-frame-dependent, emotional decision.
The arc of Mark Cuban's journey over these seven years is almost a standard template of a retail investor moving from skepticism to fervor to disillusionment. The next time he changes his mind will likely be triggered simultaneously by a macro narrative and price action.
