In a podcast episode, Mark Cuban said, “I want Bitcoin to go down much further so I can buy some more.” He added that Gold investors are quite dumb. He said this in a reply to Host Bill Maher comment that he’s “very anti-Bitcoin” and believed in the value of gold.
What was the conversation?
“If everything went to hell in a hand basket and you had a gold bar you know what would happen? Someone would beat the fuck out of you or kill you and take your gold bar. It’s useless.” The investor added that owning gold today is just owning a digital transaction, anyway, so he much preferred to invest in Bitcoin.
Bitcoin right now is trading for $16,844, —over 75% lower than the all-time high of $69,044 it hit last year. Gold—and silver—have fared much better as investments in 2022. Despite the crypto market and U.S. equities taking a beating, the metals have more or less held their value. Gold is now trading for $1,800 per ounce; this time last year it was $1,807.
Maher argued that Bitcoin was not worth buying because it isn’t backed by anything. But Cuban hit back, saying that holding shares in “90% of companies out there” was also pointless. In the two-hour, wide-ranging conversation, the two agreed on at least one thing: that San Francisco is no longer a great place to start a tech company—with Cuban describing the Californian city as “pretentious.”
“An entire industry is getting pushed out,” Cuban said. “The whole technology industry went from well, okay, this is growth, this is, you know, the new thing, and now, it’s just about people shitting on the street.”
Future of Bitcoin
Bitcoin hit multiple new all-time high prices in 2021 — followed by big drops — and more institutional buy-in from major companies. Ethereum, the second-biggest cryptocurrency, notched its own new all-time high late last year as well, and then crashed below $900 in June, its lowest level since the start of 2021. U.S. government officials and the Biden administration have increasingly expressed interest in new regulations for cryptocurrency.
All the while, people’s interest in crypto remains high: it’s a hot topic not only among investors but in popular culture too, thanks to everyone from long-standing investors like Elon Musk to that kid from your high school on Facebook.
In many ways, 2021 was a “breakthrough,” says Dave Abner, head of global development at Gemini, a popular cryptocurrency exchange. “There’s tremendous focus and attention being paid to [the crypto industry].” Cryptocurrency gains value if the demand for it is higher than the supply. When a cryptocurrency is useful, people want to own more of it, driving up the demand. Since people want to use it, they don’t want to sell it. This means there is more demand than supply and the value increases.
