Mark Cuban Shelves Meme Coin Plans: 'A Lot Has to Change'

After a week of chaotic meme coin controversy, tech entreprenuer Mark Cuban is distancing himself from the volatile sector. 

The billionaire, who publicly mulled launching his own meme token in recent weeks, told Decrypt he now has no such plans. 

“A lot has to change in terms of transparency, and more importantly, fairness,” Cuban said of meme coins. “I don’t want to be involved in a game of musical chairs.” 

Over the weekend, Argentinian president Javier Milei found himself embroiled in controversy after endorsing and promoting a meme coin called Libra, billed as “dedicated to encouraging the growth of the Argentine economy by funding small Argentine businesses and startups.” The token immediately soared to a $4.5 billion market capitalization, then tanked within hours as the team behind the coin pulled the rug.

Milei’s so-called meme coin advisor, Hayden Davis, admitted in multiple interviews shortly thereafter that he pulled $100 million from the project and is now sitting on funds that he doesn’t know what to do with.

The ensuing scandal, dubbed “Cryptogate” in Argentina, has prompted fraud charges against Milei and calls for his impeachment. 

Prior to the Libra saga, Mark Cuban had expressed cautious optimism that meme coins could be a force for good, despite their reputation. 

After President Donald Trump launched his own TRUMP token last month—a move Cuban slammed as “self-serving bullshit” and pure speculation—the former “Shark Tank” host proposed launching a similarly structured coin, with a twist. 

Cuban’s coin would feature the same tokenomics, and follow the same release schedule, but all revenue earned from the project would benefit the U.S. Treasury.

“If you want to gamble, gamble,” Cuban said at the time. “But at least use it to make a dent in the US debt.”

Though Cuban is fond of boisterous public statements that are often meant to prove a point rather than be taken at face value, it appears he was—at least at one point—serious about his meme coin intentions. 

Over a week after floating his token proposal, the Dallas Mavericks owner reposted a clip of Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy pondering whether “it’s possible to make a shit ton of money on my own meme coin without screwing people over.”

In crypto, though, a lot can change in just a few weeks. And if Cuban now won’t launch his own token without sweeping meme coin industry consumer protections, he may be waiting in vain. Weeks after Trump launched his own meme token, the president’s acting SEC chair, Hester Peirce, said that most meme coins likely won’t fall under the regulator’s purview.