Up 58% for the year, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) remains one of the best-performing cryptocurrencies of 2024. At its current price of $67,000, Bitcoin is within striking distance of its all-time high of $73,750 and appears poised for a strong year-end rally.

So it's perhaps no surprise that billionaire investors are starting to take a harder look at Bitcoin as we head into 2025. One of them is billionaire tech entrepreneur Mark Cuban, who has become increasingly bullish about the reasons investors should consider adding the world's most popular cryptocurrency to their portfolios. Should you be bullish on Bitcoin, too?

The case for buying Bitcoin

Obviously, Cuban is enamored with Bitcoin's massive upside potential. In July, he was asked how much higher Bitcoin might go, and his answer was simple: "Way higher than you think." Don't forget -- just 11 years ago, Bitcoin was trading for less than $100. Who could have imagined at the time that investors today would be seriously talking up a $1 million price tag for Bitcoin?

As Cuban sees it, though, there's more to Bitcoin than just its phenomenal upside potential. For one, Cuban suggests that Bitcoin can function as a safe haven asset during times of political uncertainty. And he's convinced that Bitcoin -- just like gold -- can be a store of value, especially in hyperinflationary economic environments. As a result, Bitcoin offers some surprising downside risk protection for investors.

There's one more aspect of Bitcoin that appeals to Cuban, its ability to function as a worldwide digital currency. In fact, Cuban has suggested that Bitcoin could eventually function as a global reserve currency, much as the U.S. dollar does today. If that's the case, then it would dramatically boost worldwide demand for Bitcoin, creating new upward price pressure for years, if not decades, to come.

Cuban is so bullish on Bitcoin, in fact, that he's now one of the leaders of Crypto4Harris, a loose coalition of tech investors and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who are backing a pro-crypto strategy for Vice President Kamala Harris. Cuban has even suggested that he'd be willing to serve as the new head of the SEC in a Harris administration.

The case against buying Bitcoin

But don't forget that just a few years ago, Cuban was a Bitcoin skeptic. In 2019, he famously suggested that he'd rather buy bananas than Bitcoin. That's because he didn't see any obvious utility for Bitcoin. At least with bananas, there's the obvious nutritional value. "I could eat bananas -- Bitcoin, not so much," he remarked at the time.

Cuban confessed that he didn't see the point of buying crypto at all. For him, buying Bitcoin was much like investing in baseball cards or comic books. Sure, the digital asset might have value for die-hard enthusiasts, but what about for everyone else? Bitcoin, he said, simply didn't have any intrinsic value, and that made it hard to trust. If you've ever wondered why someone would pay $1 million for a rare baseball card, you've also probably wondered why someone would pay $1 million for a single Bitcoin.

All of which is to say that many investors still question whether Bitcoin is a "home run" investment. In 2019 -- just two years before Bitcoin went on to hit a then-all-time high of $69,000 -- things weren't obvious at all. Even today, it's still not obvious whether Bitcoin will ever break through the $100,000 price point.

So before you decide to follow Cuban and buy Bitcoin, you need to be comfortable with its value as a digital asset. If you don't "get" how Bitcoin could reshape the modern global financial system, then it might not be for you.

Buy Bitcoin for the long term?

At the end of the day, I'm following Cuban. He's looking at Bitcoin from the perspective of a venture capitalist and a tech entrepreneur. If he likes what he sees now after having been a crypto skeptic, then that makes me much more comfortable investing in Bitcoin as well.

Now that Bitcoin has officially tipped into the cultural zeitgeist and become a presidential campaign issue, it's easy to see Bitcoin going even more mainstream over the next four years. Who knows? If Cuban eventually ends up heading the SEC, then we might just be at the beginning of a long, exciting run for Bitcoin.

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Dominic Basulto has positions in Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Should You Follow Billionaire Mark Cuban and Buy Bitcoin? was originally published by The Motley Fool