In a video segment with WIRED magazine, Mark Cuban, the billionaire investor and the owner of Dallas Mavericks, discussed about the potential of ICOs and cryptocurrency. 

Cuban started by saying that cryptocurrencies, specifically Bitcoin (BTC), is only “worth what somebody will pay for it.”

Further, Cuban compared Bitcoin to collectibles such as art, comic books, and baseball cards, saying:

“There’s no real intrinsic value, you can’t eat a baseball card or shouldn’t eat a baseball card; your artwork might look good on the wall but not much you can do with it. Bitcoin, there’s even less you can do with it. At least I can look at my baseball card…I can look at artwork.”

He also discussed about his doubt for the mass adoption of crypto because of its challenges and complexity:

“Crypto… is so complicated for 99% of the population. Do you put it in a device? Do you print it out? How do you keep it from being hacked? Who’s going to host it for you? It’s just so difficult that it’s only worth what somebody will pay for it.”

During the video, Cuban compared cryptos to gold.

“So I say it’s like gold. Gold is a religion. Now, people who are really into gold, they’ll tell you that there’s a bad depression and things go to hell in a handbasket, if you own gold then you’ll be okay. No, you won’t! You carry around a gold bar someone’s gonna hit your ass, knock you out and steal your gold bar and it’s gonna happen again and again and again. I’d rather have bananas, I can eat bananas. Crypto, not so much.”

Besides, Cuban did not conclude the discussion with a positive note. He noted that blockchain is definitely something he can make a great argument for. According to him, cryptocurrencies can be utilized as a store of value. He explained:

“There’s a lot of applications, and they’ll be used…but you can create a blockchain on your own without using all the available cryptocurrencies. It’s not that I’m against cryptocurrencies. You just have to be very careful. At best they’re a store of value.”

Cuban later said that he shouldn’t have said bananas, as they do tend to go bad. He also said that the WIRED segment “was supposed to be a humorous piece.”

However, Cuban said that the rest of what he said was true. He believes that if enough people buy cryptos, its value will ultimately go up, and vice versa. 

Earlier in August, Dallas Mavericks announced that they were planning to accept Bitcoin as payment.