Scaramucci on Skybridge's new Bitcoin fund

Anthony Scaramucci, Skybridge Founder & Managing Partner, joined Yahoo Finance Live to discuss Skybridge's new Bitcoin fund and discusses his future in politics.

Video Transcript

JULIA LA ROCHE: And joining us now is Anthony Scaramucci, the founder and managing partner of SkyBridge Capital. And, of course, the news today, Anthony, is that SkyBridge is raising a Bitcoin fund. So would love to hear your thesis on the cryptocurrency and what makes you so bullish on it.

ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI: Well, thank you for mentioning it, Julia. We started today. We went live. We got the effective registration with the SEC completed, and so we started the fund with $25 million of our own capital. We'll be opening that fund to investors on January 4. Minimum subscription sizes are $50,000. And if you remember from coming to our SALT conferences and coming up to our 15th anniversary of SkyBridge, one of the things that we tried to do is democratize the hedge-fund industry.

And Bitcoin is still somewhat difficult to buy. You can buy it through Grayscale, as an example, which is an amazing company, but I thought it was an important thing to try to create a product that was a little cheaper. This is 75 basis points versus 2% for Grayscale, and also the Grayscale fund has a tendency to trade at a 20% to 30% premium. And so we wanted this to just trade at the net asset value of Bitcoin.

We're charging 75 basis points. It'll be back officed by Fidelity Digital Assets, and so that's where the storage will be. It'll be administered there as well, and we'll have Ernst & Young do the auditing. And so we have best-of-class, best-of-breed service providers.

It's super exciting for us. We've already taken preliminary orders. We're building a very nice book for January 4.

And, of course, you have to accept the proposition that Bitcoin is a store of value. And if you believe that and you look at other stores of value-- let's use gold as an example. Gold has a $10 trillion market capitalization if you look at all the gold that's mined and price it at current market prices, and Bitcoin has about a $450 to $470 billion market cap in comparison.

And so we think there's a very large move for Bitcoin over the next 5 to 10 years. We think it's a-- it's a product that people will have in their portfolios. And we wanted to get out there with something that could be available to RIAs, the mass affluent of people that have an interest in owning some digital assets.

JULIA LA ROCHE: So you mentioned some themes that we keep hearing come up, democratizing, I guess, access for it-- you run a fund of funds, of course-- and that it's a store of value. Let's explore this idea of democratizing access to it because I think a lot of folks-- maybe these wouldn't be folks who invest the $50,000 minimum that you are referencing, but a lot of folks might just, you know, download an app and buy some with their own money. Why is this kind of vehicle more appealing?

ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI: Well, you could buy it through PayPal, as an example, or Bitwise or some of these other products. It is typically-- and I've done this. And it's not to pick on those products. I want all of those products in the marketplace because the more Bitcoin exposure and the more reach of Bitcoin, the better for everybody. But I just think this is an easier, more simplistic way to do it.

There are certain regulations that RIAs have to abide by currently. There's no Bitcoin ETF. And so if you want to scale up in Bitcoin and buy it in size-- and by size I mean, let's say, $50,000-- you need to put it in a partnership structure. That'll protect you regulatorily That'll protect you as an RIA or, frankly, as an end user. You'll have sizable entities like SkyBridge or Fidelity backing the actual fund. And so for those reasons, I think it makes sense.

It's also priced competitively. If you want to buy in scale, you've got to go to Grayscale, but now you can go to SkyBridge.

And so, yes, you can buy it on your own. You can put it on a USB. But this is about safety. This is about the integrity of the storage, and it's about knowing what you own. And I think SkyBridge, in conjunction with Fidelity, will provide all of that.

ADAM SHAPIRO: We wish you the best with that fund, but I got to ask you because, in the last block, you said a couple things. You talked about we're in a transformative period. You said that this-- politics right now-- it's about right and wrong and that we need to create a platform that people can stand on to run off of. Too many people, you said, are at uneven starts. Would you ever consider running for office? And if you would, what would be the ideal office for which you'd be qualified? Is it like mayor, governor, senator, or representative? What say you?

ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI: Well, you know, Adam, I think you know a little bit about my personal life, so right now I'm running for re-election in my marriage, OK? I mean, that's like my number-one thing that I'm doing. And for all I know, I think I'm on, like, a one-day term.

And, Adam, I can't speak for your spouse or your relationships, but--

ADAM SHAPIRO: My partner.

ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI: --you know, I could be term-- I could be term-- your partner. I could be limited. I could be term limited in the situation that I'm in.

So, you know, it is something that people ask me about from time to time. I don't know if I'm the right person for politics because I'm going to come at people very, very straight up. As I said when I was in the White House, of which I lasted 11 short days, that I'm a frontstabber. I'm not a backstabber like these people. So I don't really know how I could make it in politics.

I tell my buddies on Wall Street if you think the guys on Wall Street are bad or the men and women are bad, go to Washington, OK? We're Eagle Scouts compared to these people that I met down in Washington.

And so I don't know. I mean, you know, 10 or 12 years from now if you asked me that question, would I have an interest? Perhaps. I'm not a politician, so I'm not going to say never, but the right job for me would be an executive job because I've been running a company, my own company in some form, for the last 24 years.

And so I wouldn't want to be in the legislature. I'd want to be paving potholes, if you will, and making sure that people were safe and making sure that people felt like they had an opportunity.

But you never know, Adam. But I'll tell you what. If I do run, I expect you to be my campaign manager, OK, because I think you have a pretty good ear for this stuff.

ADAM SHAPIRO: I heard some campaign slogans there, and I would talk to you about it.

[LAUGHTER]

JULIA LA ROCHE: Well, Anthony Scaramucci, I think Bitcoin's getting a bit of a boost today, and I thank you so much for taking the time to talk all things, whether DC or crypto, with us. We wish you the very best, and happy holidays to you and your family.