American investor Mark Cuban said he has sold most of his Bitcoin holdings because the asset did not demonstrate the safe-haven properties he expected during periods of dollar weakness and geopolitical tension.
In an interview with Front Office Sports, he said he once viewed Bitcoin as "gold better than gold," a judgment supported by Bitcoin’s fixed supply and decentralization. However, he now believes this logic has not been realized in the market.
Shift in assessment following U.S.-Iran tensions
Kurbán noted that the period of heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran was a critical turning point in his perspective. He had expected that when the dollar weakened, Bitcoin would rise, and that such assets would demonstrate safe-haven characteristics during escalating geopolitical risks. However, the actual price movement did not align with this expectation.
In comparison, gold performed more strongly during this period. According to the report, gold rose above $5,500 per ounce earlier this year, reaching a record high. Based on this, Cuban believes that gold has clearly outperformed Bitcoin under these market conditions.
Bitcoin has underperformed gold over the past year.
As of Thursday, Bitcoin was trading at approximately $77,500, down about 30% over the past 12 months and approximately 38% below its all-time high of $126,080 set in October last year.
During the same period, gold has pulled back from its highs, but its 12-month gain remains over 37%. The report also noted that gold’s total market capitalization has exceeded $31 trillion, making it still the highest-valued asset globally.
However, from a shorter time frame, the data does not fully support Klobuchar’s assessment. Since signs of conflict between the U.S. and Iran emerged in late February, Bitcoin has risen over 16%, while gold has declined by more than 15% during the same period. This suggests that judgments regarding Bitcoin’s safe-haven properties can still be influenced by the observation window used.
Evaluate Ethereum higher than other tokens
Although he reduced most of his Bitcoin holdings, Cuban has not dismissed the entire crypto industry. He said he is less disappointed in Ethereum because it is still supported by real-world use cases such as decentralized finance and on-chain applications.
However, he is clear in his stance on meme coins and speculative tokens, calling such assets "worthless." He also stated that one reason he is disappointed with the cryptocurrency industry as a whole is that it has yet to find sufficiently broad mainstream applications.
In 2021, Cuban publicly stated that his cryptocurrency portfolio was approximately 60% Bitcoin, 30% Ethereum, and the remaining 10% in other assets. He was also an active supporter of NFTs and had accepted Dogecoin for purchases of Dallas Mavericks merchandise.