Billionaire Mark Cuban is doubling down on bitcoin and says he even prefers investing in the digital asset over gold.
The longtime cryptocurrency advocate said he hopes the price of bitcoin goes down further so he can buy more during a Dec. 26 episode of Bill Maher’s “Club Random” podcast.
Bitcoin has lost over 60% of its value in 2022 and prices were hovering just below $17,000 as of Dec. 27 – far below the digital coin’s 2021 highs.
Financial experts typically consider gold to be a good way for people to protect the value of their investment portfolio from declining due to inflation. However, Cuban called gold investors “dumb as f—” during his interview with Maher.
“If everything went to hell in a hand basket and you had a gold bar, you know what would happen? Someone would beat the f— out of you or kill you and take your gold bar,” he explained.
When comparing the two, Cuban said that both gold and bitcoin are a “store of value”, meaning he believes that both assets maintain their value rather than depreciating.
However, there is a key difference between how gold and bitcoin derive value.
Gold’s value is derived from its relative scarcity and its long history of being traded for goods and services.
On the other hand, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are a relatively new form of payment.
Most digital coins don’t derive their value from an underlying entity which makes them subject to unpredictable fluctuations in price.
Bitcoin prices are currently trending far below their January prices while gold has only diminished by a little over 1% year to date as of Dec. 27.
