Mark Cuban is an entrepreneur known mainly for his position on Shark Tank, a reality TV series on which startups pitch their products to receive funding. Cuban is also the owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team as well as the production company 2929 Productions, among other organizations in the film and entertainment industry.
While not directly involved in creating blockchain and crypto projects, Cuban is a known advocate in the space and often speaks positively about crypto in the public eye. He enjoys studying projects and learning about the cryptocurrency space.
Cuban has always leaned favorably toward the crypto community and all of its prospects. In defending blockchain technology, the expert investor tweeted that we must think of crypto not as currency but rather “decentralized, secure, networked platforms with features that allow for the development of apps that can have unique utility for individuals and businesses.”
Much of Cuban’s 2021 consisted of him putting his money where his mouth is. The billionaire invested in various DeFi projects such as Polygon and Aave, bringing these innovations the productive publicity they require to grow. Cuban claims that Polygon (and blockchain in general) utilizing decentralization to save money on server costs is a powerful advantage over traditional enterprises.
Of course, Cuban’s DeFi interests extended to 2021’s other big crypto trend: nonfungible tokens. In January, the billionaire launched his own set of personal NFTs on the Rarible marketplace. The assets generated tens of thousands of dollars.
Many know that Cuban is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA team. In November, the billionaire issued thousands of NFTs to dedicated fans, rewarding those who continually attend games in person. In March, Cuban announced fans can buy Mavericks tickets and gear with Dogecoin.
Iron Finance, a project heavily promoted by Cuban, ended up being a bust in December, with the investors experiencing heavy losses. Cuban himself admitted he may have jumped the gun and that his math was wrong on this occasion.
Cuban believes smart contracts will take the place of traditional business operations, and thus plans to bring more awareness to their utility over the next year via his various properties.
Cuban is a self-described “Ethereum maxi,” and believes that despite the various networks competing to build useful apps and smart contracts, Ethereum will come out on top — even when it comes to Bitcoin.
While Cuban claims that Bitcoin could be a reliable store of value, it is Ethereum that will prove its case to the world with its upcoming layer-2 solutions and applications, and the network’s shift to a proof-of-stake consensus method.
Otherwise, Cuban will likely spend 2022 investing in more NFT-related projects. The investor typically spends a few hours every day studying the many startups within the crypto space, and there’s no reason that should change in the new year.
Cuban also spends time investing in altcoins of all sorts, such as Dogecoin, but isn’t as all in on them as he is with Ethereum. Cuban states that investing in altcoins is good for experience, as he just wants to learn about the space. It’s likely he’ll continue that mantra as more assets come into play, especially with the rise of Web3.
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