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　　Just finished being a hero who healed and saved people, he became a liar who cut leeks horizontally.

　　He is the most generous team owner in the NBA, and also the most hot-tempered powder keg. His big mouth not only scolded the referee and the league, but also would not let the president and politicians go. As long as he didn't like it, he didn't hesitate to shoot at it, and he didn't care how much the punishment was, because what he had was money.

　　In the hearts of many Americans, he is a hero who subverts the lucrative pharmaceutical industry, brings affordable medicine to the poor like an angel, and is known as the social conscience of the United States. But in the eyes of another group of people, he is another swindler who is cutting leeks, helping the platform swept away billions of dollars and causing heavy losses to millions of investors.

　　Whether in the United States or China, Mark Cuban is undoubtedly best known as the owner of the NBA team Dallas Mavericks (Dallas Mavericks, Chinese translation before 2018: Dallas Mavericks). Cuban, who sits in the front row, always gets the most TV footage during Mavericks games. The Mavericks belong to his team and are deeply branded with Cuban.

(Note: The most passionate NBA owner must be him)

　　In the star-studded NBA league, the Mavericks have a unique charm and loyal fans. With their smooth and fast offense, they became one of the most entertaining teams in the NBA, and they finally won the NBA championship in 2011, completing the illustrious career of the German Nowitzki. With the success of the Mavericks, the passionate boss Cuban has become a household name.

　　Perhaps, Cuban's life is worthy of the title of Lone Ranger. Cuban, 62 years old, although his personal net worth is less than 5 billion US dollars, he is ranked more than 100 billionaires in the United States, but he is one of the most popular billionaires in the United States. His maverick personality and outspoken frankness have made him attract countless fans in the United States.

　　There is no doubt that Cuban is the most violent boss in the NBA. Although the accumulated fines to the league exceeded 3 million US dollars, each time he scolded, it was hundreds of thousands of fines, and even broke the NBA's fines record. But every time his temper came up, Cuban couldn't help but scold him happily.

　　Cuban's big mouth not only bombarded the referees and the league, but also showed no mercy to politicians. In the past few years, he has repeatedly publicly criticized former US President Trump, Texas Governor Abbott and Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz, and the Texas Republican government on epidemic prevention measures and vaccination issues. He went against the rules and even had a public spat with Cruz on Twitter.

　　Perfect escape from adverse market hedging

　　Cuban was born into a Jewish middle-class businessman family in Pittsburgh, and showed extraordinary business talent since he was a child. As a teenager, he started reselling everything from garbage bags to stamps to newspapers. In addition to making money, he also saves money. During Cuban University, he transferred from the University of Pittsburgh to Indiana University, just because the latter has the lowest tuition among the top ten business schools in the United States.

　　After college, Cuban moved to Dallas and found a salesman position in the burgeoning software industry in the 1980s. He quickly spotted the entrepreneurial opportunity in this new field, and a few years later started his first company, MicroSolution, specializing in software such as Lotus. In 1990, Cuban sold the company for $6 million, pocketing $2 million and becoming a millionaire.

　　During the Internet boom in the 1990s, Cuban keenly discovered market opportunities and founded Broadcast.com, an Internet radio aggregation platform. In 1999, the site became the first platform in the United States to live stream the Victoria's Secret lingerie show online (audio, of course), and through its user fees and advertising model, Broadcast.com generated $13.5 million in revenue in a single quarter.

　　At the height of the dot-com bubble in late 1999, Cuban sold his second company to Yahoo, an "acquisition" for $5.7 billion. Like many of the sky-high deals Yahoo has made, Broadcast.com, the pioneer of webcasting, quietly disappeared after it entered the Yahoo banner, and Yahoo didn't care anyway. But 41-year-old Cuban's life has changed.

　　The deal was carried out on an all-stock basis, giving Cuban 14.6 million Yahoo shares, or $1.4 billion based on the stock price of $95 at the time. And as the bubble got bigger and bigger, Yahoo's market value even exceeded 300 billion US dollars, and Cuban's stock holdings exceeded 3.4 billion US dollars at the peak.

　　After becoming rich overnight, Cuban began to buy private jets and luxury houses, and began to enjoy the super-rich life of "ten-digit net worth". The billionaire investor Russ Hanneman in the US stock "Silicon Valley" is actually Cuban. Two months later, Cuban also spent $285 million to buy the Dallas Mavericks, starting one of his most successful roles: NBA team owner.

　　But Cuban hasn't lost his cool completely while enjoying his wealth. He smelled the crisis in the booming sound of Internet stocks. Cuban couldn't believe that Yahoo would buy his company for $5.7 billion. He felt that the whole market had lost its mind. Therefore, just when everyone was intoxicated with the bull market of Internet stocks, Cuban did the opposite and did a surprising thing.

　　Because the Yahoo shares he got had a three-year lock-up period, Cuban could not immediately sell and cash out. Therefore, he chose to hedge the risk of his own Yahoo shares plummeting through options, which is equivalent to buying insurance in advance to prepare for the stock market crash. In late 1999, Cuban bought an $85 put and a $205 call. In this way, whether Yahoo's stock price plummets or skyrockets, the value of his stake remains within this range, equivalent to $1.2 billion to $3 billion.

　　A lot of people were laughing at Cuban because he spent $20 million to keep his Yahoo holdings worth no more than $3 billion when everyone thought Yahoo's stock price would continue to rise like crazy. But as recently as March 2000, the Nasdaq peaked at 5,408, and that was the start of the crash. In 2001, the Nasdaq fell to 1400 points, and in 2002 it continued to fall to 1100 points. Shares of many companies fell by more than half, and many more went bankrupt as they ran out of funds.

　　And this Cuban, who was ridiculed as a fool by many people, relied on the option position to keep at least 1.2 billion US dollars in assets. If he hadn't set up an option hedge, Cuban's Yahoo stock would have been worth only $190 million in 2002, an 85 percent drop in assets. After the stock was unlocked at the end of the year, Cuban began to diversify his investments and escaped from the collapse of the dot-com bubble.

　　In the U.S. stock bull market of the past two years, Cuban once again smelled the breath of collapse. In mid-2020, Cuban publicly began to question the bubble in the U.S. stock market, believing that the fundamentals and prospects of the U.S. economy were not optimistic, and that the stock market rose only because of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy. "In the bull market, everyone has this money and thinks they are geniuses, and even a lot of people who don't know how to invest come in." Cuban predicted at the time that the U.S. stock market might decline sharply in the next few years, and he also started his Another rallied sell-off.

(Note: Cuban's generic drug store sells drugs at floor prices)

　　Subvert the profiteering pharmaceutical industry

　　The topic goes back to the beginning of the article. Why is Cuban now "just finished being a hero and then becoming a liar?"

　　Entering 2022, Cuban has done a great thing that will benefit the entire society and make the poor in the United States look forward to it for many years. Earlier this year, he opened a chain of affordable pharmacies, Cost Plus Drugs, which sells generic drugs online and offline; no middlemen, no huge profits, only 15% profit, and no insurance.

　　Cost Plus Drugs currently sells more than 800 generic drugs in 50 states in the United States, treating diseases ranging from simple allergies and fevers to severe cancer and leukemia. All drug prices are strictly limited: cost price plus 15% profit, plus a $3 handling fee and $5 shipping fee per order. Cuban also invested in the construction of a generic drug factory of more than 20,000 square meters in Dallas, which is planned to be put into production by the end of this year, which will greatly reduce the cost of drug prices.

　　It may be difficult for people in other countries to understand why a generic drug store is the savior of the poor in the United States. Although the U.S. ranks first in the world in terms of GDP and has the most advanced medicine and treatment technology, the health care enjoyed by ordinary people is the worst among the G7. Because pharmaceutical groups, medical institutions and insurance groups control the profits and pricing power of the entire medical and health industry, the price of medicines in the United States is frequently exorbitant, and the poor without insurance cannot afford it.

　　Maybe people with good insurance can not care about drug prices, but not everyone can afford good insurance, not to mention there are a large number of poor people who are uninsured; many people will also face the predicament of being uninsured after losing their jobs. According to the survey company Gallup, there are still 18 million people in the United States, equivalent to 7% of adults without medical insurance, can not afford expensive prescription drugs.

　　For the poor, cheap generic drugs are a life-saving hope. In addition to selling generic drugs at floor prices, Cuban also intends to bypass middlemen and buy brand-name drugs with patent protection directly from pharmaceutical companies, also earning only 15% of the profit.

　　What does Cuban's generic drug store mean to the poor? Take Imatinib, a drug for the treatment of leukemia, for example. If a brand-name drug is purchased through prescription retail channels in the United States, the price exceeds $2,500, while the generic drug sold by Cuban here is only $14.40. The diabetes drug Actos sells for $74.40 at regular pharmacies, while Cuban sells for $6.60 here. Mesalamine (Apriso), a drug for stomach problems, sells for $122.70 at general pharmacies, while Cuban sells for $36.60 here.

　　2018 data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) shows that while brand-name drugs make up only a small percentage of prescription drugs, they take 80% of the profits, and the price of generic drugs is often 15% of the price of brand-name drugs. -20%. A Harvard study found that about one-third of all drugs in the United States were issued through Medicare (the government's insurance for the elderly) last year, and if all of Cuban's generic drugs were replaced, government health insurance could save $3.6 billion a year.

　　Of course, due to the obstacles of interest groups, American health care reform is difficult. Cuban's generic drug store has not been able to shake the deep-rooted medical system in the United States, and it is also difficult to completely subvert the hugely profitable drug prices in the United States. However, his "Guyong Pharmacy" directly sells life-saving drugs at the floor price, which has opened a gap for this hugely profitable industry, and has also allowed tens of millions of ordinary people to see hope for health. Grateful people directly called Cuban an "American hero" on Twitter.

(Note: Cuban is publicly listed as a user of the Voyager platform circle)

　　Become a liar in the currency circle

　　However, Cuban has not enjoyed the reputation for too long, and his reputation and personality have suffered a major blow. This time, Cuban's character has become a "fraud associate" and a "leek-cutting devil", and millions of retail investors are gnashing their teeth at him, demanding that Cuban take responsibility for their losses of more than $5 billion .

　　How did Cuban get along with the crooks? This also starts with a business cooperation last year. Last October, the Dallas Mavericks announced a five-year partnership with cryptocurrency exchange Voyager Digital. Voyager has thus been crowned the "official cryptocurrency partner of the Dallas Mavericks", a platform where investors can trade digital currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin.

　　In recent years, the deep-pocketed cryptocurrency industry has been sponsoring sports teams in an attempt to expand its brand influence. In addition to the Dallas Mavericks, the Portland Trail Blazers and Philadelphia 76ers also have sponsors from companies in the cryptocurrency industry. The Staples Center, the legendary home of the Los Angeles Lakers, was also renamed the Crypto.com Arena last year, after the Singapore-based cryptocurrency platform paid $700 million for the 20-year naming rights.

　　At the signing ceremony last fall, Mavericks owner Cuban brought the team's star players to the event, along with Voyager founder and CEO Steve Ehrlich. Given that Cuban himself has long been openly optimistic about the prospects of cryptocurrencies, he is also full of praise for the team's signing of this sponsor.

　　Cuban publicly stated at the signing event that he is also a customer of Voyager and trades cryptocurrencies on it, and he likes the platform’s low commissions and convenient transactions. More importantly, Cuban also endorsed Voyager's security, "this (a platform) is a risk-free platform for you to enter the cryptocurrency field."

　　Moreover, Cuban also endorsed Voyager with Lone Ranger, "Voyager and Lone Ranger will make cryptocurrencies more accessible through education and community projects, global events, and fan participation." At that time, Voyager was aggressively expanding its users. Lone Ranger fans only need Open an account, deposit $100 and trade to get a $100 account opening bonus.

　　However, Cuban may not have thought that the collapse of the cryptocurrency industry came so quickly, and his reputation fell to the bottom. Less than a year after he endorsed Voyager, the cryptocurrency platform filed for bankruptcy in July, with 3 million retail investors totaling at least $5 billion in user funds frozen or lost.

　　Losing investors are suing Voyager, but they also see Cuban and the Mavericks as accomplices. They accuse Cuban of deliberately misleading investors in the promotion of Voyager, enticing millions of retail investors who are inexperienced in the cryptocurrency space to invest in Voyager, before they lose their money.

　　To Cuban's disadvantage, Voyager founder and CEO Enrich also said in the lawsuit filing, "Cuban is my important adviser, we have a very good relationship, he believes in cryptocurrencies. Sometimes a person brings The value is not seen by the outside world, but the help that comes behind the scenes.”

　　Just last week, investors in Voyager filed a class-action lawsuit in Florida, alleging Voyager was a "Ponzi scheme" and that Cuban and the Mavericks played a major role in the fraudulent process that lured legions of investors. Therefore, these investors also named Cuban as one of the defendants. Both Cuban and Voyager declined to comment following the class-action lawsuit.

　　Although this lawsuit will last for several years, whether Cuban really needs to take responsibility cannot be determined for the time being, but this time it is open to the platform of the cryptocurrency platform to help users in the circle cut the leeks, resulting in heavy losses for millions of investors, which will undoubtedly Become a major stain on Cuban's life.

　　In 2022, Cuban, the most maverick billionaire in the United States, first became a lone hero and then became a liar and accomplice. One-handed treatment to save people, one-handed to help cut leeks.