Mark Cuban Explains What Crypto’s Really About — Says It’s Missing Application ‘Grandma Really Wants to Use’

Mark Cuban, a Shark Tank investor and the owner of the NBA team Dallas Mavericks, has shared what he thinks crypto is really about. “Crypto is still waiting for its Instagram moment,” the billionaire said, noting that “What crypto is missing is that one application that grandma really wants to use.”

Mark Cuban Shares What Crypto Needs to Go Mainstream

Billionaire Mark Cuban, a Shark Tank star and the owner of the NBA team Dallas Mavericks, answered a number of questions from users on social media platform X during an episode of Wired’s “Tech Support,” broadcast on Wednesday. Some questions were about cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Replying to a question about whether he thinks crypto is dead, Cuban promptly said: “No. Hell no.” However, the billionaire added:

But I do think crypto has some problems. Number one, most people, when they think crypto, they think speculation. That’s not what crypto’s really about.

“Number two, crypto is really about creating new applications that make things better and easier,” he continued.

Cuban then explained what crypto needs in order to go mainstream. “Think back to the iPhone. It came out in 2007. But it wasn’t until the best apps like Instagram and Snapchat and Facebook went mobile that the App Store and the iPhone really took off. Crypto is still waiting for its Instagram moment,” the Dallas Mavericks owner opined. He emphasized:

What crypto is missing is that one application that grandma really wants to use.

The billionaire proceeded to talk about NFTs. “It won’t be all that much longer where we’ll be able to use an NFT as a ticket. Once the ticket is resold, we don’t make a penny. The scalpers make all the money. If that ticket was an NFT, and it will be in the future, every time it’s resold, the original ticket holder can make some money, the team can make some money,” he detailed. “You can’t do that with physical tickets. You can’t do that with traditional digital transfer. You can do that when you turn it into crypto or an NFT. When that happens, crypto go up.”

The Shark Tank investor also advised: “With NFTs, the best time to buy is when you’re a collector and you love the NFT.” He cautioned:

Don’t buy to speculate. You know what happens to speculators? They get their ass handed to them.

In September, Cuban disclosed a crypto wallet hack resulting in the theft of approximately $870,000 in cryptocurrency. He has also repeatedly criticized the approach taken by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to regulate the crypto industry. In July, he said the SEC made mistakes in its regulatory approach and described the regulator as “arrogant.” Additionally, he provided recommendations for how the securities watchdog should regulate crypto.

Do you agree with Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban about crypto’s true purpose and what it needs to go mainstream? Let us know in the comments section below.