“Shark Tank” famed entrepreneur Mark Cuban was once a prominent crypto sceptic.
He had even compared Bitcoin (BTC) to bananas and said that the latter was more useful. But his stance has changed over time.
In a recent interaction on X, Cuban vouched for crypto regulations.
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Cuban’s evolving stance on crypto
Cuban’s pro-crypto journey began with Ethereum (ETH) smart contracts.
He described it as a technology that could trigger transactions independently without human intervention.
The former Dallas Mavericks’ principal owner has since invested in both Bitcoin and Ethereum, picking the latter as having the highest upside potential while endorsing Bitcoin as a superior alternative to gold during economic crises.
In 2024, he reaffirmed his support for Bitcoin and Ethereum while warning investors about speculative meme coins, calling them a game of “musical chairs.”
By 2026, Cuban had evolved into one of the more consistent pro-regulation voices in the space, arguing that oversight was not the enemy of crypto but the condition for its mainstream adoption.
Trending on TheStreet Roundtable What he said about tax and crypto
On May 16, Cuban proposed a federal tax on AI tokens at the provider level.
AI tokens are the units of text, such as words, characters, or fragments, that large language models process when reading inputs and generating outputs, with usage typically metered and billed per token.
Cuban proposed a tax of less than 50 cents per million tokens. He argued that the tax would push major AI companies to optimize tokenization, reduce energy consumption, and generate government revenue.
Pushback came quickly, with critics arguing free markets already provide sufficient incentives and that additional government revenue would simply be spent rather than used to pay down debt.
Cuban conceded that last point, calling it wishful thinking, but held firm on the energy argument, saying that when timing matters, a tax can accelerate what the market would eventually do on its own.
On May 18, Cuban gave the example of regulations in cryptocurrency.
“This is exactly what EVERYONE said about crypto. Any regulation is bad. I got crucified on here for saying that the industry needed regulation to expand it to normies,” he said.
He pointed at how the stance for crypto regulations have changed and the industry is rushing to shape legislation through crypto Political Action Committee (PAC), spending and lobbying on issues like agency oversight, transaction taxation, and reporting requirements.