Mark Cuban Predicts Chips Will Become the New Crypto Asset, Will This Time Fail?

Over the past seven years, Mark Cuban has repeatedly misjudged the price trends of crypto assets.

Written by: Protos

Compiled by: Chopper, Foresight News

Last Saturday afternoon, Mark Cuban made another prediction about the crypto industry on social media: "Chips as an asset class will become the new cryptocurrency." This controversial statement of just ten words quickly trended, garnering over 1.2 million views in a day.

The comments section has become a collection 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 that pegged cryptocurrency value to bananas, and several tweets were later deleted. Even more embarrassingly, Cuban not only failed to predict cryptocurrency prices but also attempted to erase the evidence.

He heavily promoted the Iron Finance liquidity mining project, which collapsed just days later, with the token price dropping to zero; he also touted a so-called "risk-free" lending platform, which ultimately declared bankruptcy. Additionally, due to his own security lapses, he fell victim to a phishing attack, losing crypto assets worth six figures; previously, he had also liquidated his Bitcoin holdings.

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

"I’d Rather Hold Bananas"

In a 2019 interview with Wired, Cuban claimed that Bitcoin's intrinsic value is even less than that of baseball cards, comic books, or art. He made a statement that is still frequently referenced today: "I’d rather hold bananas; at least I 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 around $8,200; since then, Bitcoin has increased by 670%.

Deleted Tweets Comparing Cryptocurrencies to the Internet Bubble

In January 2021, Cuban tweeted that current cryptocurrency trading was akin to the internet stock bubble of the late 1990s. He later deleted this tweet.

Months after deleting the tweet, during a Twitter Spaces event, Cuban reversed his stance, calling Bitcoin the "best store of value" and revealed that he held Bitcoin.

206% Annualized Liquidity Mining Project Ultimately Went to Zero

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

In embarrassment, Cuban deleted the entire blog. Iron Finance characterized this collapse as a large-scale bank run, and the project never recovered.

In another now-deleted tweet, Cuban admitted that he, like other investors, suffered losses. He later told Bloomberg via email: "Although I encountered a project running away, ultimately it was my own negligence."

Voyager Digital Was Not "Close to Risk-Free"

The setbacks did not stop Cuban. In October of that year, his Dallas Mavericks announced Voyager Digital as the team's first crypto sponsor, with a five-year contract worth over $25 million.

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

In December last year, a Florida court dismissed the lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds; in June this year, investors petitioned the appellate court to reopen 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% in a single day. On August 15 of the same year, he tweeted again: "The flaws and simplicity of Dogecoin are precisely its greatest advantages," leading to another 18% single-day surge in Dogecoin.

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

MetaMask Wallet Failed to Securely Store, Resulting in Theft

In September 2023, a phishing attack led to one of Cuban's crypto wallets being stolen, resulting in a loss of about $870,000. He revealed that the theft occurred because he downloaded a tampered MetaMask installation program. Reports at the time indicated that he promptly contacted Coinbase, which helped prevent another $2.5 million in assets from being transferred by hackers.

This also became another negative case in Cuban's series of controversial crypto operations.

Liquidated Bitcoin

He then completely turned bearish. In May of this year, Cuban stated: "Bitcoin has lost its way." He lamented that Bitcoin should have outperformed gold, which was rising at the same time.

The Bitcoin community flooded the comments section to refute him, while Cuban claimed he had sold at a high price: "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 disclosed that he had sold 98% of his Bitcoin holdings, which were once worth billions, keeping only a small amount of Dogecoin.

This past weekend, Bitcoin's price was around $63,000, far below the $88,000 selling threshold he mentioned. After seven years of the "banana theory," project collapses, and platform bankruptcies, the only successful operation Cuban has had in the crypto market is exiting in time.