Billionaire caught in 'world first' crypto bloodbath
Maverick billionaire Mark Cuban was among investors burned in a spectacular crypto crash which saw the cryptocurrency TITAN slide from $60 to $0 in less than one day.
One unproven theory is the TITAN crash was a "rug pull", where the developer of a cryptocurrency abandons the project and runs away with investors' funds.
Another theory is simply that confidence in TITAN began to evaporate as its price tipped and headed south.
A graph showing the obliteration of the TITAN cryptocurrency price last week. Supplied
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As large investors known as "whales" cashed out, causing further panic, a death spiral was set in motion.
The end result of the mass sell-off saw TITAN lose nearly all its value last week, when it dropped from over US$60 on June 16 to fractionally above zero the following morning.
Mr Cuban, a keen crypto investor and owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA franchise, later said he made a "mistake" by not researching the TITAN token more thoroughly.
Discussing the event on Twitter, Mr Cuban wrote: "I got hit like everyone else."
He claimed to have "got out" during the bloodbath, but did not specify when or how much he lost.
Mr Cuban had earlier written a blog post about TITAN and the future of decentralised finance.
Iron Finance, the team behind TITAN, afterwards described what happened as "the world's first large-scale crypto bank run", likening it to a traditional money run on a bricks-and-mortar bank.
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Billionaire investor Mark Cuban is a cryptocurrency enthusiast. Getty
In a blog post four days ago, Iron Finance blamed the start of the avalanche on "some whales" removing liquidity.
"We never thought it would happen, but it just did," the company said.
"We just experienced the world's first large-scale crypto bank run."
It has been a tough few days for cryptocurrencies.
China's central bank has put intense pressure on banks and financial institutions to cut Bitcoin traders loose.
Authorities in various provinces have been ordered to shut down crytpo mining operations.
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