Author: Protos
Compiled by: Chopper, Foresight News
Last Saturday afternoon, Mark Cuban dropped another crypto industry prediction on social media: "Chips as an asset class will be the new crypto." This controversial ten-word statement hit trending status within a day, garnering over 1.2 million views.
The comment section quickly turned into a compilation of Cuban's past failed crypto predictions. Over the past seven years, Cuban has repeatedly misjudged the price trends of crypto assets. He once proposed a valuation logic using bananas as a benchmark for cryptocurrency value, and several of his tweets were later deleted. More embarrassingly, Cuban not only failed at predicting crypto prices but also attempted to erase the evidence.
He vigorously promoted the Iron Finance liquidity mining project, only for it to collapse and its token price to plummet to near zero within a few days. He also hyped a supposedly "near risk-free" lending platform, which eventually declared bankruptcy. Additionally, due to a personal security oversight, he fell victim to a phishing attack, losing six-figures worth of crypto assets; he had previously also liquidated his Bitcoin holdings.
Before delving into whether Cuban's new assertion that "chip assets will outperform crypto" holds water, let's review his series of unfulfilled predictions.
"I'd Rather Hold Bananas"
In a 2019 interview with Wired magazine, Cuban claimed that Bitcoin's intrinsic value was even less than that of baseball cards, comic books, or art. His statement, still frequently quoted today: "I'd rather hold bananas. At least I can eat bananas. I can't do that with crypto."
A few weeks later, in an interview with Forbes, he stated that Bitcoin "had no chance" of becoming a reliable currency. When Cuban made these bearish comments on September 27, 2019, Bitcoin was priced around $8,200. Since then, Bitcoin has surged by approximately 670%.
Deletes Tweet Comparing Crypto to Dot-Com Bubble
In January 2021, Cuban posted that current crypto trading resembled the dot-com stock bubble of the late 1990s. He later deleted this tweet himself.
Months after deleting the tweet, during a Twitter Spaces audio event, Cuban reversed course, calling Bitcoin "the best store of value" and revealing he held Bitcoin.
Liquidity Mining Project with 206% APY Ultimately Crashes to Zero
Understanding Cuban's experience in June 2021 explains his wavering stance and attempts to mend relations with the Bitcoin community in October of that year. That summer, Cuban jumped into liquidity mining. He published a blog post sharing how he earned roughly 206% annualized yield as a liquidity provider for the DAI/TITAN trading pair. DAI is MakerDAO's stablecoin, and TITAN was Iron Finance's governance token. Just a few days later, TITAN's price crashed from around $64 to virtually zero.
Embarrassed, Cuban deleted the entire blog post. Iron Finance characterized the crash as a massive bank run event, and the project never recovered.
In another now-deleted tweet, Cuban admitted suffering losses like other investors. He later told Bloomberg via email, "Even though I got rugged, it's my own fault for not doing my homework."
Voyager Digital Was Not "Near Risk-Free"
Consecutive setbacks didn't stop Cuban. That October, his Dallas Mavericks announced Voyager Digital as the team's first crypto sponsor in a five-year deal worth over $25 million.
While promoting the platform, Cuban claimed Voyager's yields were "as close to risk-free as you can get in crypto." In July 2022, Voyager Digital filed for bankruptcy. Investors soon filed a class-action lawsuit, alleging Cuban helped promote a platform resembling a Ponzi scheme.
Last December, a Florida court dismissed the lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds. This June, investors appealed to a higher court to reopen the case.
Repeatedly Hypes Dogecoin
In March 2021, the Mavericks became the first NBA team to accept Dogecoin (DOGE) payments. The day Cuban announced the news, Dogecoin surged 20%. On August 15 that year, he tweeted again: "Dogecoin's flaws and simplicity are actually its biggest advantage," causing Dogecoin to jump another 18% for the day.
But just two days later, facing public scrutiny, he downplayed his earlier promotion, claiming publicly to hold only about $494 worth of Dogecoin.
Fails to Secure MetaMask Wallet, Suffers Theft
In September 2023, a phishing attack led to the theft from one of Cuban's crypto wallets, resulting in a loss of roughly $870,000. He revealed the theft occurred because he downloaded a compromised MetaMask installer. Reports at the time indicated he contacted Coinbase in time to prevent hackers from transferring another $2.5 million in assets.
This became yet another negative episode in Cuban's series of controversial crypto moves.
Liquidates Bitcoin Holdings
Then came his complete bearish turn. This past May, Cuban stated: "Bitcoin has lost its way." He lamented that Bitcoin should have outperformed gold, which was rising concurrently.
The Bitcoin community flooded the comments to rebut him. Cuban then claimed he sold at high prices: "Sold at lows of $88,000, started scaling out as high as $120k."
In an interview at the RAISE summit in Paris this month, he fully disclosed: his once multi-hundred-million-dollar Bitcoin position is now 98% sold, retaining only a small amount of Dogecoin.
This weekend, Bitcoin trades around $63,000, significantly below the $88,000 lower bound he cited for selling. After seven years of the "banana theory," project implosions, and platform bankruptcies, the only move that secured profits for Cuban in the crypto market was his timely exit.
