Mark Cuban Backs $20 Million Dollar Cryptocurrency Venture

[Hydrogen]

Billionaire investor and Bitcoin doubter Mark Cuban is coming around on cryptocurrency.

Despite saying Bitcoin was a bubble in early June, Cuban has backed venture capital firm 1confirmation, according to Bloomberg. The firm not only has plans to invest some $20 million in companies developing blockchain technologies, but it also wants to invest in early stage companies before they head into an initial coin offering (ICO)—a fundraising effort in which the offering company issues tokens rather than ownership stakes.
Founded by Runa Capital principal Nick Tomaino, 1confirmation hopes an early stage investment in a promising albeit unproven company could lead to a discounted token price once young company holds an ICO, according to Bloomberg.

1confirmation also hinted that it hopes to add value to the companies it invests in to bump up its ICO pricing.

It's not the first time Cuban has gotten involved in an ICO. Cuban also plans on participating in a fundraising round of sports-betting blockchain platform Unikrn, meaning his latest investment could result in him indirectly owning more than one kind of cryptocurrency.

ICOs have caught fire recently, at least among investors like Cuban. One major selling point is that while traditional methods of investing in a young company usually means holding onto the stake for a long period of time, tokens are far more liquid. If an investor wants out of a company, they can usually trade the company's coins for Bitcoin of Ether, which can in turn be traded for fiat currency, according to the Harvard Business Review.

Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies have surged in recent months, with Wall Street consistently raising Bitcoin's value higher and higher.

http://fortune.com/2017/08/22/mark-cuban-cryptocurrency-fund-1confirmation/

Lots of big names getting involved with ICO's. Is it because ICO's represent real value. Or is it because its relatively easy to raise the market cap of an ICO to a high dollar amount? How do people see the future of the ICOverse panning out? Will ICOdom evolve into a utopian paradise. Or will it eventually decay and entropy into a barren wasteland?

[Raize]

ICOs are the "stocks" of the cryptocurrency world, IMHO. They'll have their own degree of thrift associated with them, and there will be both good and bad ones. I'm not sure why the SEC took the timid stance that it did other than that they are probably threatened by Bitcoin and thus have to take a weak stance on ICOs. Plus, it's questionable if they even have jurisdiction in many cases.

[Rodru1]

Thats very interesting. But Cuban is not the only one who is entering the market. Many high financial investors are trying to enter the market. They#re looking for underestimated and small but solid coins like Vertcoin. They'll enter the market within a few month and will boost it. Think about german winklevoss twins and swiss investment companys like crypto fund ag.
Vertcoin for example exploded the last days just because of a single chinese company sniffing it a bit.

[avikz]

I am sure they are not the only one who has invested so heavily in the ICO or in crypto currencies. Crypto currency has created a parallel economy and lots of institutional players have invested in to it for good. ICO is an easy way to enter in to the market. It is very similar to a startup business in real world. If a venture capitalist sees potential in to it, they will invest in to it. Same thing is happening with ICO as well.

But I believe these are good news which keeps small investors like us motivated. This kind of news brings positive energy in to the market which is very much needed. I am sure, we will be able to hear a lot of such news in coming future.

[OneUnderBridge]

Nice. I think I might take the plunge and buy me some. I have been looking at the altcoins because I feel like I missed the bus with bitcoin but I am beginning to think that the bitcoin bus is barely getting started. I have been watching and waiting a very long time though and I wish I would have bought some earlier.

[Filmmmakerr]

I read about this earlier. Not surprised at all, Tim Draper also invested in Tezos I can see a lot of big investors getting into the crypto world in 2018. Now that everyone knows that there's so much potential, they'll get involved.

[ivrynx]

This is great new for everyone who knows cryptocurrencies and have it, we all know mark cubam is a businessman, he doesn't want to lose his money without a fight and most of the tome he wins. Though cryptocurrency is already a roung for many years, i think he already has a huge amount of bitcoin in pocket, he's just modest not to say it, since no one would participate in using cryptocurrencies, without knowing bitcoin since it is the dominant cryptocurrency today, and also if his new venture would become succesful he does need to exchange his cryptocurrency to bitcoin  in oder to change it to fiat. Well, since that.we have now a new player in the world of cryptocurrrency i think more and more businesen will soon follow, though they an create the own cryptocurrency, they still need bitcoin to exchange it, in other words, bitcoin still wins, since bitcoin is the standard and will still be dominant.

[Makka]

Billionaire investor and Bitcoin doubter Mark Cuban is coming around on cryptocurrency.

Despite saying Bitcoin was a bubble in early June, Cuban has backed venture capital firm 1confirmation, according to Bloomberg. The firm not only has plans to invest some $20 million in companies developing blockchain technologies, but it also wants to invest in early stage companies before they head into an initial coin offering (ICO)—a fundraising effort in which the offering company issues tokens rather than ownership stakes.
Founded by Runa Capital principal Nick Tomaino, 1confirmation hopes an early stage investment in a promising albeit unproven company could lead to a discounted token price once young company holds an ICO, according to Bloomberg.

1confirmation also hinted that it hopes to add value to the companies it invests in to bump up its ICO pricing.

It's not the first time Cuban has gotten involved in an ICO. Cuban also plans on participating in a fundraising round of sports-betting blockchain platform Unikrn, meaning his latest investment could result in him indirectly owning more than one kind of cryptocurrency.

ICOs have caught fire recently, at least among investors like Cuban. One major selling point is that while traditional methods of investing in a young company usually means holding onto the stake for a long period of time, tokens are far more liquid. If an investor wants out of a company, they can usually trade the company's coins for Bitcoin of Ether, which can in turn be traded for fiat currency, according to the Harvard Business Review.

Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies have surged in recent months, with Wall Street consistently raising Bitcoin's value higher and higher.

http://fortune.com/2017/08/22/mark-cuban-cryptocurrency-fund-1confirmation/

Lots of big names getting involved with ICO's. Is it because ICO's represent real value. Or is it because its relatively easy to raise the market cap of an ICO to a high dollar amount? How do people see the future of the ICOverse panning out? Will ICOdom evolve into a utopian paradise. Or will it eventually decay and entropy into a barren wasteland?

If ICOs will be used by trusted projects and companies, then most probably ICO investors will continue to shower funds to them, and eventually earn from their investments in return. A win-win scenario for both parties. But if ICOs will simply be exploited by scams and other monkey businesses people think of just to earn money easily, investors will gradually lose their trust in ICOs and sooner or later it will become, as you say, "a barren wasteland."

[Chris!]

ICOs are the "stocks" of the cryptocurrency world, IMHO. They'll have their own degree of thrift associated with them, and there will be both good and bad ones. I'm not sure why the SEC took the timid stance that it did other than that they are probably threatened by Bitcoin and thus have to take a weak stance on ICOs. Plus, it's questionable if they even have jurisdiction in many cases.

They have the exact same jurisdiction as the post office has against email haha. Whether they realize it and create laws around it are completely different though because this actually comes down to real money (vs. government printed funny money) and irrefutable assets (unlike a third party you're trusting with millions in X company)!

[no0dlepunk]

Lots of big names getting involved with ICO's. Is it because ICO's represent real value. Or is it because its relatively easy to raise the market cap of an ICO to a high dollar amount? How do people see the future of the ICOverse panning out? Will ICOdom evolve into a utopian paradise. Or will it eventually decay and entropy into a barren wasteland?

ICOs could be compared to IPOs (which is a term used in stocks) when it comes to potential profit. You may imagine this - billions of dollars being invested to ICOs; now let us say 1 ICO token costs 1 dollar (that is going to be billions of tokens on hands) - once the ICO is listed in an exchange and let's say it doubled its price in a couple of days, that is huge profit!

of course my numbers are exaggerated up there   but that is mostly the reason why ICOs attract big investors... they won't keep it long term anyway, amigo.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Lots of big names getting involved with ICO's. Is it because ICO's represent real value. Or is it because its relatively easy to raise the market cap of an ICO to a high dollar amount? How do people see the future of the ICOverse panning out? Will ICOdom evolve into a utopian paradise. Or will it eventually decay and entropy into a barren wasteland?

ICOs could be compared to IPOs (which is a term used in stocks) when it comes to potential profit. You may imagine this - billions of dollars being invested to ICOs; now let us say 1 ICO token costs 1 dollar (that is going to be billions of tokens on hands) - once the ICO is listed in an exchange and let's say it doubled its price in a couple of days, that is huge profit!

of course my numbers are exaggerated up there   but that is mostly the reason why ICOs attract big investors... they won't keep it long term anyway, amigo.

If, if, if.  ICO's are far more risky than IPOs, at least ones by decent companies.   And
there are so many coins already, and the demand is so unpredictable, that you're likely to
lose money just as often as not.  I don't see the need for any new crypto.  Don't we have all
the coins we're going to need?

[mk4]

I honestly don't see ICOs going anywhere soon. Companies/organizations who started ICOs were super successful, racking in millions of dollars easily if they have a convincing paper and good social media publicity; they don't even need a working product! I feel bad for the price of Ethereum though, they could easily just dump those thousands of Ethereum to the markets.

I, personally wouldn't take part in Cuban's ICO, as I've always seen Cuban as somewhat a "shady" person. Not to mention he was talking alot of crap about bitcoin in the past, and here he is now with his first ICO. Just like every other huge investor, I'm pretty sure he is just in for the money.

[Tron Foundation]

Something that is big about this is also that it simply brings more attention to bitcoin and cryptocurrency as it highlights a respected, mainstream, prominent billionaire. Only time will tell how Cuban's specific venture will do. But respected investors going into the area is huge!!

[iluvpie60]

Billionaire investor and Bitcoin doubter Mark Cuban is coming around on cryptocurrency.

Despite saying Bitcoin was a bubble in early June, Cuban has backed venture capital firm 1confirmation, according to Bloomberg. The firm not only has plans to invest some $20 million in companies developing blockchain technologies, but it also wants to invest in early stage companies before they head into an initial coin offering (ICO)—a fundraising effort in which the offering company issues tokens rather than ownership stakes.
Founded by Runa Capital principal Nick Tomaino, 1confirmation hopes an early stage investment in a promising albeit unproven company could lead to a discounted token price once young company holds an ICO, according to Bloomberg.

1confirmation also hinted that it hopes to add value to the companies it invests in to bump up its ICO pricing.

It's not the first time Cuban has gotten involved in an ICO. Cuban also plans on participating in a fundraising round of sports-betting blockchain platform Unikrn, meaning his latest investment could result in him indirectly owning more than one kind of cryptocurrency.

ICOs have caught fire recently, at least among investors like Cuban. One major selling point is that while traditional methods of investing in a young company usually means holding onto the stake for a long period of time, tokens are far more liquid. If an investor wants out of a company, they can usually trade the company's coins for Bitcoin of Ether, which can in turn be traded for fiat currency, according to the Harvard Business Review.

Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies have surged in recent months, with Wall Street consistently raising Bitcoin's value higher and higher.

http://fortune.com/2017/08/22/mark-cuban-cryptocurrency-fund-1confirmation/

Lots of big names getting involved with ICO's. Is it because ICO's represent real value. Or is it because its relatively easy to raise the market cap of an ICO to a high dollar amount? How do people see the future of the ICOverse panning out? Will ICOdom evolve into a utopian paradise. Or will it eventually decay and entropy into a barren wasteland?

Seems like ICOs are the new tech internet bubble thing. Probably more than 75% will fail within a year or two. Early investors will make out like bandits, buy low and sell at a high a week later or something like that.

Unless it is a decent company that actually fills a need a lot of people agree with.

Purse.io lets you buy stuff from amazon at a cheaper rate, and this campaign I am in right now for Snapup looks pretty cool. Buying premium products at a discount is something a lot of people want to do so I see that as being possible for success for sure!

[Pidgeon]

He is just trying to milk some money with a crappy ICO.
Not the first not the last, rather than praising him we should hang guys like him

[Scorpion]

He claims Bitcoin is a bubble yet pumps a platform he's got money in, he's not a good person for Bitcoin enthusiast. He'd love to see Bitcoin drop and then continue to advertise what crypto he has, he'll do this on the back of Bitcoin's name.

[piloder]

ICO has been really easy way to raise enough investment within very short period of time and even some scammy projects have collected more than 100 bitcoin from ICO.

If the projects are backed by some registered company than chance of getting scammed is quite thin and with cryptobased ICO companies can start to develop platform on next day which isn't the case with other usual method of crowdfunding.

[Kakmakr]

Mark Cuban obviously talked crap about Bitcoin, because he knew very little about the technology. The thing is, Bitcoin grows on you and ICO's has become the new trend. Mark can be a Ahole sometimes and a know it all, but he makes sound business decisions once he gets the bigger picture.

How can you ignore a technology that has out performed all other currencies and commodities for the second year in a row?

Another guy to look out for is, https://vinnylingham.com/for-the-love-of-bitcoin-739fa6be4689  < He got the bigger picture, long before Mark Cuban did >

[bitalive]

Marc Cuban talks trash about bitcoin and cryptos, but he invests more than $20 mil in crypto venture business - what a guy!

[Opquar]

Marc Cuban talks trash about bitcoin and cryptos, but he invests more than $20 mil in crypto venture business - what a guy!

He didn't really talk trash about cryptos in general, but Bitcoin specifically. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency but not all cryptocurrencies are Bitcoin. I don't think what he did is hypocritical at all, and I'm not even a fan. Let him do what he wants to do.