Mark Cuban: billionaire and crypto investor

Interest in alternative digital coins, or altcoins, surged this year. Billionaire Mark Cuban is at the forefront of this boom, and he has built a portfolio of various digital tokens and blockchain companies.

In April this year, he shared that his portfolio allocation consists of “60% bitcoin, 30% Ethereum and 10% of the rest”.

In an episode of The Delphi Podcast, Cuban shared about his interest in Ethereum. Ethereum is the blockchain whereby the second ether, the second largest cryptocurrency below bitcoin, is built.

“What really changed everything was smart contracts. Smart contracts came along, and that created DeFi and NFTs. That’s what changed the game. That’s what got me excited. That’s why it’s a lot like the internet.”

Mark Cuban

Smart contracts are collections of code that carry out a set of instructions and run on the blockchain.

Mark Cuban’s Ethereum wallet

Cuban’s Ethereum wallet became public when he showcased his NFT portfolio on his crypto collectible, Lazy.

The wallet has 85 ERC-20 Tokens as well as 13 ERC-721 Tokens. An ERC20 token is a blockchain-based asset with similar functionality to bitcoin, ether, and bitcoin cash: it can hold value and be sent and received. On the other hand, ERC-721 refers to NFTs that can be found on the Ethereum blockchain.

Top Holdings: GMT and RARI

Currently, all the tokens in his wallet are worth US$339,637.78, with most of the value coming from projects like Global Messaging Token (GMT) and Rarible (RARI).

Global Messaging Token is the token for the Mercury protocol, which is the protocol behind privacy messaging app Dust. Dust is cofounded by Mark Cuban. When applications build on the Mercury Protocol, they can charge GMT for premium services or award it to active users for positive participation.

On the other hand, Rarible is a software allowing digital artists and creators to issue and sell custom crypto assets that represent ownership in their digital work. 

Screenshot of Rarible site

The Shark Tank judge owns Lazy, an online gallery for artworks, signalling his interest in NFTs.

Top 5 tokens by value in Mark Cuban’s Ethereum wallet

Some other assets that Cuban owns includes USD Coin (USDC), SushiToken (SUSHI), NFTY and Friends with Benefits (FWB). He also owns 5.8 Ether, or US$11,529.39 worth.

It also has to be taken into consideration that this is likely just a small proportion of Cuban’s holdings, and he is likely to store his main holdings in other wallets.

Also Read: Not Just Digital Arts: Here’s A List Of All The Possible Use Cases Of NFTs