Bitcoin

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Mark Cuban said the story around his Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) sale was wrong, and he did not dump the asset because of the Iran war.
As reported previously on Cryptopolitan, Mark offloaded 80 percent of his Bitcoin when its price dipped along with gold hitting $5,000, with which he claimed that this digital asset was indeed failing.
The omitted information from the previous version is that the price of BTC surged by 16 percent ever since President Donald Trump’s war in Iran has started.
Mark stated that he offloaded his coins before the start of this war and his prices for sales range from $88,000 to a minimum of $120,000, adding that “I follow the rule for stocks; I exit when my thesis is no longer relevant.”
<h3 id="mark-cuban-says-bitcoin-has-betrayed-its-own-basic-ethos">Mark Cuban says Bitcoin has betrayed its own basic ethos</h3>
Mark said Bitcoin was sold for years as a hedge against broken money, central bank chaos, and economic crashes. Under that logic, Bitcoin has no business tracking stock markets’ price movements.
“That’s not what btc was meant to be. At least not IMO,” Mark said. He also brought Michael Saylor into the argument. Michael’s company, Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), has become one of the biggest corporate Bitcoin buyers in the market.
<blockquote>
 “And who knows how much of the price is Saylor propping it up,” Mark said. “Even the maxis haven’t been as loud. I’m not saying it goes to zero. I’m saying it’s whole value is built on supply and demand, with a little premium for payments.”
</blockquote>
Seven months ago, Bitcoin reached an all-time high of $126,000. The sentiment was positive. Many crypto traders felt that breaking $1 million is not only possible but rather preordained by the charts. Currently, Bitcoin trades at roughly $76,000, a fall of some 40% from its all-time highs.
However, the long-term perspective does not paint a negative picture. Bitcoin increased from $10,000 in November 2017 to $100,000 in December 2024. It managed to spend over ten years climbing through crashes, scams, rate fluctuations, exchanges’ collapses, and thousands of “Bitcoin is dead” articles.
The dip-buying crowd has history on its side. Bitcoin fell 64% in 2022, then came back with 156% gains in 2023 and 121% in 2024. Anyone who bought near $16,000 during the 2022 collapse later saw the price run to $126,000.
<h3 id="traders-price-in-deeper-bitcoin-losses-as-nasdaq-gets-sec-approval-for-new-btc-options-index">Traders price in deeper Bitcoin losses as Nasdaq gets SEC approval for new BTC options index</h3>
On Polymarket, Bitcoin has a 50% chance of falling to $55,000 this year, a 42% probability of falling to $50,000, and a 32% probability of reaching $45,000. It may fall as low as $25,000 with a probability of 8%, while there is also a possibility of increasing to $150,000 at a probability of 8%.
Meanwhile, the US Securities and Exchange Commission just today approved Nasdaq (NASDAQ: NDAQ) to list Bitcoin index options.
The contracts will give US equity traders another way to bet on Bitcoin without using options tied to spot Bitcoin ETFs, including the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (NASDAQ: IBIT) from BlackRock (NYSE: BLK).
An accelerated approval has been granted by the Securities and Exchange Commission in an order issued Friday. This would mean that they will be cash settled options or the European style and hence early exercise would not be a concern for in-the-money contracts prior to expiration.
It should be noted that the product is not yet tradable since the Commodity Futures Trading Commission must approve it finally before Nasdaq may list it.
The underlying index for this product will be CME CF Bitcoin Real Time Index. This index collects pricing data from cryptocurrency exchanges every 200 milliseconds.
It has to be mentioned that CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) had been offering options contracts for Bitcoin futures contracts since 2020. The difference lies in the fact that this would be within the equity market environment.
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Mark Cuban says Bitcoin betrayed its own ethos long before Iran war and current price is a ‘prop up’ by Saylor

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