SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci said the investment firm is pivoting its focus towards digital assets.
Scaramucci said that of the $3.5 billion SkyBridge has under management, nearly half is already engaged in crypto assets. In addition to bitcoin, these also include Ethereum, the Algorand protocol, and publicly traded, crypto-related stocks, he said.
With a majority of the company’s funds in crypto-assets, Scaramucci believes the investment firm could triple its assets to $10 billion. “We feel so strongly about this opportunity that we’ve adapted and repositioned the firm to eventually be a leading cryptocurrency asset manager and adviser,” he told Bloomberg.
Scaramucci decision the result of pandemic
After the company’s previous approach of focusing on high-profile hedge funds, Scaramucci said the decision to switch to crypto came as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. In addition to the resulting surge in inflation, below-trend GDP growth of 1.6% over the past decade has also forced investors to reconsider where growth is actually taking place. “For us, we think the cryptocurrency markets represent tremendous growth,” Scaramucci said. “It comes with volatility, certainly, but I think over the three to five years, we’d like that trajectory.”
SkyBridge executive John Darsie also elaborated on this newfound approach in the same interview with Bloomberg. “As a result of the pandemic, we had a huge drawdown in the credit portion of the portfolio,” Darsie said. “And so what we decided to do was a portion of that capital that was previously allocated to credit managers was invested directly into crypto assets like bitcoin and Ethereum.”
Bitcoin mining fund
As part of this pivot, SkyBridge recently filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to start a new vehicle for investing in bitcoin mining. According to the filing, the investment vehicle, dubbed SkyBridge BTC Mining L.P., has raised about $7 million.
Scaramucci said he first considered cryptocurrencies seriously just prior to his brief stint as communications director at the Trump White House. Upon hearing Treasury officials discuss using blockchain technology for the potential digitization of the dollar, Scaramucci said “it was a little bit of an epiphany for me.”