Mark Cuban is betting $1 million that Amazon and Netflix will best the S&P 500 over 10 years - and another $1 million on crypto to do the same
- Mark Cuban is betting $1 million that Netflix and Amazon will outperform the S&P 500.
- He's also wagering $1 million that bitcoin or ether will beat the index over 10 years.
- Warren Buffett bet on the benchmark to beat hedge funds over a decade and won.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
The billionaire Mark Cuban is so confident that his two favorite stocks and the top cryptocurrencies will outperform the S&P 500 index over the next decade that he's willing to bet $2 million on that outcome.
The "Shark Tank" investor and Dallas Mavericks owner agreed to a pair of wagers with Peter Mallouk, the CEO of Creative Planning, a wealth-management firm.
Cuban tweeted on Thursday that he would stake $1 million on a 50-50 split of Netflix and Amazon stock beating the benchmark over the next 10 years. He said he'd bet another $1 million on Mallouk's choice of either bitcoin or ether doing the same. Mallouk would bet on the S&P 500 in both cases.
The men agreed to make the two bets after butting heads over the value of a diversified portfolio and the long-term viability of cryptocurrencies. The argument was sparked by Mallouk criticizing Cuban's promotion of Dogecoin, predicting that 99% of cryptocurrencies would end up worthless, and touting stocks as superior to crypto.
"If you buy a hundred stocks, odds are most go up," Mallouk tweeted on Wednesday. "If you buy a hundred cryptocurrencies, most will go to zero. Big difference."
"Only a fool would buy 100 stocks or 100 crypto assets," Cuban replied.
To settle their dispute, Cuban and Mallouk agreed to convert $4 million into crypto, set up smart contracts that would automatically pay the victors in 10 years, and donate the proceeds to charity.
Their bet echoes a famous wager between the billionaire investor Warren Buffett and the hedge-fund manager Ted Seides in 2007. Buffett staked $1 million on the S&P 500 besting a basket of hedge funds over a decade and won.