Who doesn't want to wake up a little—maybe a lot—richer?
Back in 2017, billionaire entrepreneur and "Shark Tank" star Mark Cuban laid out a no-frills playbook for building wealth. His nine rules, shared in a Vanity Fair video, were exactly what you'd expect from someone who turned sweat equity into a billion-dollar payday: live cheap, build a cushion, avoid credit cards, and never stop learning.
But one rule still stands out today for anyone with a high risk tolerance and a gambler's edge.
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"If you're a true adventurer and you really want to throw the Hail Mary," Cuban said, "you might take 10%, put it in Bitcoin or Ethereum… but if you do that, you've gotta pretend you've already lost your money."
No hype. No crypto evangelism. Just a clear boundary: if you're going to gamble, keep it capped and assume it's already gone.
He compared it to collecting sneakers or baseball cards—fun, speculative, and only valuable if someone else wants to buy it. "It's a flyer," he said. "Something's worth what somebody else will pay for it."
Back then, Bitcoin was trading around $5,600. Fast forward to 2025, and it's averaged near $100,000. If someone had invested $5,000 then, that portion would now be worth nearly $90,000. If instead someone risked $15,000 on the same move, it would've pushed toward $270,000.
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But that's the point: it was always meant to be a gamble.
Cuban's advice wasn't about timing the market or chasing trends. It was about managing emotion. The only way the "Hail Mary" rule works is if you treat the money as lost the second you invest it. The rest of your portfolio stays boring and stable.
Meanwhile, Warren Buffett has made it clear he wants no part of crypto. "In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad ending," he told CNBC in 2018. He's repeatedly said Bitcoin has no real value—and when demand dries up, it can disappear faster than most investors can react.
And that's what makes Cuban's Hail Mary advice different from the noise. It doesn't promise anything. It warns you to emotionally detach. Bet it. Forget it. If it hits, great. If not, your core financial life stays intact.
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For anyone eyeing a big swing without wrecking their future, that rule still holds up:
Cap the risk at 10%. Assume it's already gone. Then get back to doing the boring things that actually build wealth.
And before you throw your own Hail Mary, talk to a financial adviser. Crypto might be exciting, but excitement is not a strategy. Cuban knew that too.
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Image: Imagn
