The Dallas Mavericks owner would buy a pet rock before gold. Here is why Cuban is no fan of the yellow metal.

"I hate gold. Gold is a religion," Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, says in an exclusive interview at the Three Sharks In A Castle Symposium. "I do not see it as an alternative to currency."

Cuban said that while there may be some fundamental value to gold, "everything else is a collectible," he said, adding that gold and bitcoin are the "same thing."

According to Cuban, both bitcoin and gold derive their value from supply and demand.

"The good news about bitcoin is that there's a finite supply, and the bad news about gold is that they'll keep mining more" he said.

Cuban noted that retail investors would do well to clear their personal debt first in order to avoid interest expenses.

"The best investment you can make is paying off your credit cards, paying off whatever debt you have," he said. "If you have a student loan with a 7% interest rate, if you pay off that loan, you're making 7%, that's your immediate return, which is a lot safer than picking a stock, or trying to pick real estate, or whatever it may be."

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This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held TK positions in the stocks mentioned.