Billionaire Mark Cuban Still Believes in Crypto Despite Price Crash, Compares to Early Days of Internet

Despite the ongoing crypto market downturn, worsened by crypto exchange FTX’s collapse, many seasoned investors have come out to voice their ongoing belief in crypto. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban declared he is confident about the future of the technology.

“A basic question. Why have I invested in crypto? Because I believe Smart Contracts will have a significant impact in creating valuable applications. I have said from day 1, the value of a token is derived from the applications that run on its platform and the utility they create,” the American billionaire tweeted.

The entrepreneur has long praised Ethereum (ETH) as the crypto that is superior to Bitcoin (BTC) and “the closest we have to a true currency”. This is because, as a store of value, ETH has “a lot more built-in utility in its organic and native form,” and “the applications leveraging smart contracts and extensions on ethereum will dwarf bitcoin,” he said. Cuban is also a Dogecoin (DOGE) enthusiast, and last year, he revealed that he owned a small amount of the token.  

In April 2021, the businessman stated that some 60% of his crypto portfolio was in Bitcoin, about 30% in ETH, and the remaining 10% stored in other, unspecified digital assets.

At the same time, in his recent tweets, the U.S. billionaire admits that what has not been created to date is an application for cryptocurrencies that would be “ubiquitous.”

“One that is obviously needed by everyone and they are willing to go through the learning curve to use. Maybe it never comes. I hope and think it will,” according to Cuban.

To illustrate his argument with an example, the entrepreneur compares blockchain technology to streaming in the early days of the internet.

“The best analogy I can use is the early days of streaming.  The shit people had to do to listen to a 16k stream of music was insane,” according to the businessman. 

“An internet subscription for your dial-up modem. Download the provider client. Download a TCP/IP client.  Download the streaming client. Click on a batch file on a website. Make sure it all worked together. All while being laughed at for just not turning on your radio or tv. But for in office or out of market it was worth it. It started as niche in 1995. Now realize that Smart Contracts are about 5 years old,” he concludes.