Everyone wants to wake up richer. The question is how much you're willing to risk to make it happen.

Back in 2017, billionaire entrepreneur and Shark Tank star Mark Cuban shared nine straightforward rules for building wealth in a Vanity Fair video. Most of it was predictable stuff: live below your means, save six months of expenses, ditch the credit cards, keep learning. Standard advice from someone who bootstrapped his way to billions.

But one rule stands out for anyone with a taste for risk and a gambling streak.

"If you're a true adventurer and you really want to throw the Hail Mary," Cuban said, "you might take 10%, put it in Bitcoin or Ethereum… but if you do that, you've gotta pretend you've already lost your money."

No hype. No promises of lambos or moon missions. Just a clear boundary: if you're going to gamble, cap it and assume it's gone.

The Sneaker Collection Approach to Crypto

Cuban compared cryptocurrency to collecting sneakers or baseball cards. It's speculative, potentially fun, and only valuable if someone else wants to buy it from you. "It's a flyer," he explained. "Something's worth what somebody else will pay for it."

Context matters here. In 2017, Bitcoin was trading around $5,600. Fast forward to 2025, and it's averaged near $100,000. Someone who invested $5,000 back then would be sitting on nearly $90,000 today. A $15,000 bet would've grown to roughly $270,000.

But that's exactly the point: it was always meant to be a gamble, not a strategy.

Managing Emotion, Not Markets

Cuban's advice isn't about timing the market or chasing trends. It's about managing your emotional response to volatility. The Hail Mary rule only works if you treat the money as lost the moment you invest it. That way, the rest of your portfolio stays boring, stable, and focused on actual wealth building.

Meanwhile, Warren Buffett has consistently refused to touch crypto. "In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad ending," he told CNBC in 2018. Buffett has repeatedly argued that Bitcoin has no intrinsic value, and when demand evaporates, it can disappear faster than most investors can react.

That's what makes Cuban's approach different from the usual crypto noise. It doesn't promise anything. It doesn't pretend you're early to some inevitable revolution. It simply warns you to emotionally detach. Bet it. Forget it. If it pays off, great. If not, your financial life continues uninterrupted.

The Boring Part Still Matters Most

For anyone eyeing a big swing without torpedoing their future, Cuban's rule still holds up: cap the risk at 10%, assume it's already gone, then get back to doing the boring things that actually build wealth.

And before you throw your own Hail Mary, talk to a financial adviser. Crypto might be exciting, but excitement isn't a strategy. Cuban knew that in 2017, and it's still true today.