Scaramucci doubles down on bitcoin, talks SALT Jackson Hole conference

• "We bought the bottom in things like sol, ether and bitcoin," he says.

Reality check: This year's performance follows a more humbling 2022, when crypto was a drag on the firm's biggest fund, and assets under management dwindled. (SkyBridge began investing in bitcoin in late 2020).

• The firm declined to say where performance stood since its pivot to crypto, citing compliance issues around parsing specific intervals.

Looking to 2024, however, Scaramucci is sanguine.

• "The big Kahuna is the bitcoin ETF gets approved, and I predict it will be the big driver of interest," he says. There'll be an educational story being told by the largest institutions in the world to other very large institutions."
• There's also the Fed: "We've just experienced arguably one of the most aggressive interest rate cycles in U.S. central banking history. With the Fed indicating more or less that it's ending — that's another big positive."

Bitcoin's not for lattes

"We believe bitcoin is a store of value, not a global reserve currency," Scaramucci says. "Not going to buy a latte with it. But the immutability of bitcoin fits with the historical narrative around things like gold."

• When asked for a price target, he cited his last wrong one: $100,000 by the end of 2021.
• "Don't know why it can't be $100K in 18 months. Imagine a stock going from $42 to $100. Can it be done — yes."

By the numbers: That would be a 135% jump from recent prices.

"Gun-wavers" at the D.C. Corral

When asked whether the central bank or the White House would drive crypto in 2024, Scaramucci didn't exactly answer. He did, however, predict that crypto would be a factor at the polls.

• "My guess is that the White House and the Democrats are gonna be stunned by crypto voters," he said, referencing the number of folks holding crypto in the United States.
• "Why risk those voters?"

Meanwhile, he took a later question about whether he felt vindicated by the swing in the crypto market to reference his thick skin — part of which was formed by his own brief political career as Donald Trump's White House communications director in 2017, which ended in a highly public firing.

• Scaramucci says he is the kind that perseveres, not a "gun waver," referencing his time with Trump. "I had to stay in there and not flinch when other people are flinching."
• He adds: "Ron DeSantis is a gun waver, right? He's got no rizz."

Bahamas to Wyoming

Scaramucci's SALT, the hedge fund conference organizer, is gearing up for an exclusive crypto event set to run in August across town from the Fed's annual gathering in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

• "Did you think Crypto Bahamas was our last gig?" he says with a laugh. "Just remember this, we're like the Rolling Stones — we had to keep rolling to stay alive."
• "We're going to showcase the libertarianism of Wyoming!"
• "[The Fed conference] is a little dowdy, if we're gonna be honest. White sheets and white robes at the Four Seasons — that's my kind of camping."

Flashback: He remembers the Crypto Bahamas conference for who it gathered: Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Bill Clinton, but also Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen, Katy Perry, and a "cavalcade of hedge fund managers."

• "Unfortunately, we teamed up with Sam Bankman-Fried, and obviously he turned out to be a criminal," Scaramucci said.

Of note: Scaramucci says SkyBridge has not yet bought back the 30% stake sold to Bankman-Fried's FTX for $45 million in September 2022, due to "an unfortunate process of bankruptcy."

• "We lost a lot of money on that transaction and I would imagine that we'll get our shares back without a lot of consequence or drama," he said.
• The deal had included a $10 million purchase of FTX's exchange token FTT, a so-called Samcoin.

The bottom line: "Good news for me, I didn't do anything wrong, and I always tell my kids this: "If you have high integrity, there's always opportunity."

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