According to Mark Cuban, Bitcoin would have more value than gold.
This is what was recently stated in an interview in which he talked about crises and forms of protection against them.
Mark Cuban
Cuban is a well-known American entrepreneur.
He is the former majority owner, and current president, of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team in the NBA, which last year reached the finals to compete for the title.
Furthermore, he is also a famous face on TV, not only because he owns 2929 Entertainment but especially because he was one of the major “sharks” of the ABC television series Shark Tank.
Among his most well-known television appearances is the one in Sharknado 3, where he played the President of the United States, and the one in the eighth episode of the twentieth season of The Simpsons.
On X, he has more than 8.8 million followers and often talks about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.
Mark Cuban and Bitcoin
On X Cuban started talking about Bitcoin as early as 2017, even though at first he spoke about it skeptically.
At a later time, from being skeptical, he became interested, and it is perhaps only last year that he definitively transitioned to being maybe not exactly a supporter, but at least an appreciator.
In reality, already in 2022, in the middle of a bear-market, he stated that it was a smart move to invest in Bitcoin, and he was right since at that time the price of BTC even fell below $16,000. Previously, however, he had declared that he believed cryptocurrencies were a bubble similar to the dot-com bubble at the beginning of the century.
Furthermore, he rose to the headlines in the crypto chronicles for having suffered two hacker attacks, both of which ended with a theft, even if the amounts were not particularly significant for a billionaire like him.
During 2024, he developed an increasingly convinced view regarding the potential of Bitcoin, culminating in the interview a few days ago.
Bitcoin and gold
During this interview, he stated that as of today, he would prefer to own Bitcoin rather than gold, in case something bad happens to the economy, because he believes it has more value.
The entrepreneur emphasized how the interest in gold is actually not based on the demand and supply of jewelry, but on the fact that in financial markets it is seen as an option in case the economy goes into crisis or something bad happens.
According to Cuban, many people who hold Bitcoin see it the same way, that is, as a store of value.
In fact, at that point he added that, in the event of a true economic crisis, Bitcoin could even have an advantage, because it is considered better than gold.
The limits of gold
Gold has a clear and evident strength: it tends not to lose purchasing power in the long term, unlike the dollar and other fiat currencies which certainly lose purchasing power over time.
For example, about forty years ago an ounce of gold was worth about $500, while today it is worth more than $2,500. Practically in recent decades, it has outperformed inflation in the USA.
However, this tends to be the only true great advantage.
In fact, gold is very difficult to use as a means of payment, so much so that by now no one uses it for that anymore. Indeed, to tell the truth, even in the past, other metals were used much more, and in particular silver, because gold coins were actually too expensive and too rare.
It is also relatively easy to steal, and it is not practical to use at all.
In other words, its use in financial markets is purely financial, and in these cases, it is used only in the form of financial derivatives such as ETFs.
On one hand, it has the advantage of being risk-off, but on the other hand, inevitably and precisely because of this, it does not provide a large potential for return.
The advantages of Bitcoin according to Mark Cuban
Bitcoin is instead very easy and fast to use.
Anyone can use it, and it cannot be counterfeited.
Cuban points out that, in this way, in addition to serving as a store of value, Bitcoin can also be a currency of exchange, also because it can be divided, and transferred internationally.
For these additional technical characteristics, he believes it has more value than gold.
To tell the truth, the number of people in the world who use it as a means of payment is really irrelevant, but the important thing is not this, but that it can be easily transferred, for example to and from the exchanges.
Furthermore, the fact of being risk-on differentiates it from gold, guaranteeing it at least in theory potentially higher returns.
In light of all this, however, it is quite clear how in reality Bitcoin is not an alternative to gold, but a different asset with similar purposes. From a strictly technical point of view, however, the advantages are in plain sight.
