“I don’t know if it’s dead, but I’d say it’s disappointing.” That’s what Mark Cuban had to say about crypto in a recent interview with Front Office Sports (1).
Bitcoin is a major source of Cuban’s disappointment. “This might get some people upset: I think Bitcoin has lost the plot,” he said. The former “Shark Tank” host says he recently sold most of his Bitcoin because it isn’t performing well as an inflation hedge, especially now that the Iran War is causing inflation hikes.
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“I always thought it was a better version of gold than gold. Well, gold just blew up and went to $5,000; Bitcoin dropped,” Cuban said. “Every time the dollar dropped, Bitcoin should have gone up.”
Some Bitcoin aficionados, such as Blockstream CEO Adam Back, say Cuban hasn’t given Bitcoin a fair shake (2). “I don’t know what @mcuban is trying to say .. doesn’t line up with data unless he sold the bottom,” Back said on X (3) last week.
Does Bitcoin make a good inflation hedge? Was Cuban right to sell? Here’s how the math breaks down.
Does bitcoin work as an inflation hedge?
An investment counts as an inflation hedge if it helps protect its investor against the ever-decreasing purchasing power of money. If it holds value while money loses its value, then it probably makes a good inflation hedge. Fiat currency like the US dollar loses some amount of value each year because the government can (and will) print more of it as needed (4). The more dollars are printed, the less each individual dollar is worth.
Tangible goods with limited reproducibility make good inflation hedges because you can’t easily make more of them as needed. Gold is a classic inflation hedge, but other tangible goods like real estate also make good inflation hedges if you’re afraid of your money losing its value.
Bitcoin isn’t a tangible good the same way gold is; you can’t physically hold it. But the number of Bitcoins that can exist is capped: There can only ever be 21 million coins (5). In theory, this makes Bitcoin a good hedge against inflation. But how does it work in practice?
That answer is a little less clear. One 2021 study found Bitcoin was a good hedge against inflation; however, they also found it was not a safe haven against financial uncertainty like that caused by the Iran War (6).
A more recent 2025 study found its use as an inflation hedge is more context-specific, working for one inflation measure (CPI) but not another (Core PCE (7)). It also found bitcoin’s hedging properties have been disappearing since the COVID-19 outbreak.
If you’re solely interested in finding a good inflation hedge, there’s a good chance you can do better than Bitcoin.
What to learn from Mark Cuban’s panic sell
Cuban could be right to be disappointed in Bitcoin’s inflation hedge capabilities. But should he have sold when he did?
Cuban doesn’t disclose exactly when he sold his Bitcoin reserves. But it’s generally not a great plan to sell whenever you see a dip in the market. Bitcoin has gone up by 25% since the Iran War started in February; if Cuban had waited, he could have seen a better return on his funds (8).
Cuban, who Bloomberg estimates has a net worth (9) of over $10 billion, can afford to take a hit when an investment doesn’t turn out the way he wanted. He can also afford to invest in a famously volatile cryptocurrency, which a 2021 study found to be almost 10 times more volatile than the exchange rates between major currencies (10).
If you’re focusing on building wealth, you might be better served putting your cash in less volatile — but still profitable — investments like mutual funds and ETFs, skipping crypto altogether. Doing so won’t get you rich quick, but it will let you build up wealth consistently over time.
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Article Sources
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X (1), (3); U.Today (2); Forbes (4), (8); Crypto.com (5); PubMed Central (6), (10); ScienceDirect (7); Bloomberg (9)
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