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 U.S. dollar and geopolitical risks, particularly underperforming during the Iran conflict. He remarked that "Bitcoin has lost its way." This shift reflects his investment stance evolving from skepticism in 2019, to strong bullishness in 2021, and now to disappointment.
- Key Elements:
- Cuban pointed out that during the Iran conflict, while gold prices surged, Bitcoin actually fell and failed to address 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 active proponent, publicly disclosing that approximately 60% of his crypto portfolio was in Bitcoin and claiming he had never sold.
- In June 2021, Cuban suffered significant losses after promoting and investing in the DeFi project Iron Finance (TITAN token). TITAN plummeted nearly to zero within 24 hours, wiping out approximately $2 billion from the protocol.
- 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 U.S.-Iran conflict in February 2026, Bitcoin has accumulated a gain of approximately 16%, outperforming gold (which fell about 15%), indicating that his judgment is highly dependent on the chosen time frame.
Original author: ChandlerZ, Foresight News
On May 21, billionaire entrepreneur and former Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban stated on the Front Office Sports podcast that he had sold most of his Bitcoin holdings, as he believes Bitcoin has failed to effectively hedge against the weakening US dollar and geopolitical turmoil, particularly during the recent conflict with Iran. "When the Iran war caused this big turmoil, Bitcoin was always seen as the best replacement for fiat currency depreciation. I always thought it was better than gold. However, gold prices soared, and Bitcoin fell. And whenever the dollar depreciates, Bitcoin is supposed to rise, but it didn't do that."
"I think Bitcoin has lost the plot."
2019: I'd 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 bananas than Bitcoin. I can eat the bananas." This quote was frequently referenced later. At that time, he compared Bitcoin to baseball cards, comic books, and art, arguing it had no intrinsic value and emphasized that crypto was too complex for 99% of people.
In reality, he had entered the space earlier. In October 2017, Mark Cuban admitted to buying Bitcoin as a "fun" part of his portfolio during a Bloomberg interview. However, he stressed at the time that his position was very small, treating it merely as a speculative gamble similar to collecting baseball cards or art.
2021: From Banana Analogy to a 60% Bitcoin Allocation
The shift occurred during the 2021 bull run. That year, Mark Cuban transformed from an onlooker into one of the most vocal crypto advocates.
In late January, he minted his personal series "The RollUp 2021" on the NFT platform Rarible, putting an animated GIF of himself dancing in a Mavericks jersey on-chain.
In March 2021, the Dallas Mavericks became the first NBA team to accept Dogecoin for tickets and merchandise. Mark Cuban's explanation was, "Because we could, and it brings a lot of PR." In the first month, the Mavericks sold approximately $122,000 worth of merchandise via DOGE. Two months later, DOGE hit its all-time high of $0.7375.
That same year, he disclosed his crypto allocation on The Delphi Podcast: "About 60% Bitcoin, 30% Ethereum, 10% others," and emphasized, "I've never sold my Bitcoin." His reasoning at the time was that Bitcoin's fixed supply and decentralization made it a superior store of value compared to gold.
June 2021: A Lesson from Iron Finance
At the market peak, Mark Cuban learned a hard lesson in DeFi.
In June 2021, he published a lengthy 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 revealed he was a major liquidity provider for the DAI/TITAN pair, with an initial investment of $75,000. Days later, TITAN plummeted from nearly $60 to near zero within 24 hours, effectively wiping out approximately $2 billion from the protocol.
An analysis report on IRON Finance indicated the event began when several whale addresses started selling, triggering user panic. This led to massive redemptions of IRON and selling of TITAN. Due to the 10-minute TWAP oracle mechanism, TITAN's spot price fell further compared to the TWAP redemption price, creating a vicious cycle. As users redeemed more IRON, more TITAN was minted, driving its price down continuously. Eventually, TITAN crashed to near zero, and IRON Finance paused redemptions of USDC from its contracts.
Following the incident, Mark Cuban did not publicly disclose his exact losses. In an email to Bloomberg, he simply said, "The investment wasn't big enough to need to check every detail," and stated it represented a small portion of his crypto holdings. He also added, "I got hit just like everyone else. Ironically, I had already withdrawn some, thinking their TVL was still rising, and then boom... Ultimately, it was my own laziness. This kind of DeFi play is essentially about revenue and math, and I didn't calculate the key metrics correctly."
2022 to 2025: Regulatory Battles, Lawsuits, and Victory
After the bull-bear transition, Mark 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 Mark Cuban and the Mavericks, accusing him of using the team's partnership to sell a "Ponzi scheme" to inexperienced young people. Mark Cuban repeatedly criticized former SEC Chair Gary Gensler publicly, arguing that instead of forcing platforms to come in for talks, the regulator should provide clear rules first.
On December 30, 2025, a class-action lawsuit accusing Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks of defrauding investors by promoting Voyager Digital was dismissed. The lawsuit alleged that Cuban made false statements about the company multiple times before Voyager filed for bankruptcy protection in 2022. Cuban and his legal team at Brown Rudnick stated, "The lawsuit brought claims under several 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 dismissed the case in its entirety."
In 2025, the billionaire also considered launching his own Memecoin, but ultimately did not proceed. In his most recent comments on cryptocurrency, he expressed disappointment stemming from NFTs and Ethereum, though his disapproval of Bitcoin's current state was even stronger.
One Man, Seven Years, Three Reversals
Since the US-Iran conflict began to emerge in February 2026, Bitcoin has still accumulated a gain of about 16%, while gold has actually fallen about 15%, and Ethereum has risen about 9%. Mark Cuban saw the snapshots during the few days of escalating conflict. When the timeframe is extended, Bitcoin actually outperformed gold. This doesn't invalidate his disappointment, but it shows his judgment this time is still an emotional decision heavily dependent on the time window.
The arc of Mark Cuban's journey over these seven years is almost a standard template for retail investors going from skepticism to euphoria and then to disappointment. The next time he changes his mind will likely be triggered simultaneously by macro narratives and price action.
