Billionaire Mark Cuban rode to bitcoin’s defense for being digital gold while the cryptocurrency’s price plunged to its lowest levels of the year.
Bitcoin is "better than gold," Cuban tweeted on Monday evening. "No worries about storing it. Easy to transfer. Easy to trade. Easy to convert. Doesn't require an intermediary. Can be fractionalized."
He added that bitcoin is at a disadvantage versus gold because there is no "William Devane type commercials" that look to sell the cryptocurrency as a hedge against inflation.
Devane, who starred on the popular soap opera Knots Landing and the serial drama 24, has for the past decade peddled gold for Rosland Capital, telling prospective customers the precious metal is "the only currency I trust."
The timing of Cuban’s comments is noteworthy, as a recent surge in commodity and home prices, among other things, has many market participants worried about inflation.
Despite those concerns, bitcoin prices have been in a tailspin as of late.
The cryptocurrency on Tuesday fell by as much as 8.47% to $28,993 a coin and was contending with its lowest close of the year. Bitcoin has faced a barrage of selling in recent days, sparked by reports that Chinese authorities had renewed a crackdown on mining.
The recent slide has dropped bitcoin’s price to less than half of its April all-time high of more than $60,500 a coin. Gold, meanwhile, has fallen 13% from its record high of $2,051 an ounce reached in August.
Cuban, meanwhile, has been an outspoken proponent of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. His NBA team, the Dallas Mavericks, announced in March that it would begin accepting dogecoin for tickets and merchandise.
"BTC is a digital asset that is similar to gold because they both are driven exclusively by supply and demand," Cuban tweeted. "BTC does a better job with both."
This article originally appeared on Fox Business.
