Bitcoin is 'through the bear market,' says Skybridge's Anthony Scaramucci

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) has jumped dramatically from its December lows, the digital asset is up roughly 70% for the year teetering on the $28k threshold, and crypto holders are optimistic that it could climb higher.

In an interview with Yahoo Finance's Jared Blikre and Brad Smith, SkyBridge Capital Founder and Managing Partner Anthony Scaramucci said, "I would guess right now that we're through the bear market," when referring to the Bitcoin in SkyBridge's portfolio. Though just a guess, Scaramucci remained confident in his firm's investment, noting that "any time that you've held Bitcoin in a four-year rolling interval, so you pick the day, hold it for four years, you've outperformed every other asset class."

Though the former White House Communications Director noted that if something were to happen to Binance (BNB-USD) there could be a short-term hit to the crypto markets. That comes following the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's lawsuit against Binance founder Changpeng Zhao.

Watch our full conversation with Anthony Scaramucci here.

Key video Moments:

00:00:26 Scaramucci on SkyBride's redemption limitations

00:01:40 Scaramucci on volatility in the crypto markets

00:02:40 Scaramucci on Binance's position in the crypto ecosystem

Video Transcript

JARED BLIKRE: Well Anthony, let me ask, you what's the path forward for SkyBridge with respect to crypto? You've had to introduce some redemption limitations. Are those pending here? What happens with crypto prices as they rise? And what happens if they fall, for instance, if there's a fallout with respect to Binance?

ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI: Yeah, it's a very good question. But let me, again, provide context around that article and just the facts. I think it's very important not to have this thing be overly biased. We have in our prospectus the right to move our tender. It's a closed-end interval fund that tenders every six months. And then, pursuant to the board and our recommendations and so forth, we can have a 5% tender or a 25% tender.

We reduced that tender primarily because of the zigging and zagging that sometimes takes place in the wirehouses. There was a buy on that fund in February. They abruptly move it to a sell four months later. And we have a lot of privates in that fund. And so 33% of the fund is private.

As a fiduciary, the fund, to maintain the integrity of the fund and the consistency of the percentages around the portfolio, we have to do those things from time to time. In the 21 years that that fund has been open, the average tender's about 20%. There's been eight or nine periods of time where we reduce it to 5%.

And by the way, every single time we reduced it to 5% it was beneficial to the investors. You guys remember the 2008 situation. Investors that held on more than made their money back and got very high returns.

Now, you're asking about the volatility in the crypto markets. Bitcoin's down from 100 vol. It's probably a 50 vol asset right now. There is Bitcoin in portfolio through some of our hedge fund exposure. I would guess right now that we're through the bear market. And again, that is a guess. We don't know.

But any time that you've held Bitcoin in a four-year rolling interval-- So you pick the day, hold it for four years. You've outperformed every other asset class.

We made that position. We made that investment in November, December of 2020. We are up on that position. Now, we're down from the high. And that's what gets all the press because the press likes car crashes. But we're up on the position from November of 2020.

And let's see where the position is as we enter into the halving cycle in February of 2000-- or April of 2024. I like the odds there.

And you mentioned Binance. I think it's worth mentioning Binance. It is a super-important centralized exchange in our industry. If something happens to Binance, I think there will be a short-term hit.

We were talking about FTX at the opening of the show. You guys know I had a relationship there with Sam Bankman-Fried. When FTX went down, it hurt the crypto market. But it was a temporary hurt to the market. I think Bitcoin got to 16,000. It's now well through where it was on the announcement of that debacle.

You guys may remember something called Mt. Gox. That failed in 2014. 60% of the Bitcoin trading was on that exchange. People say, well, that's the end of cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin. Of course, that didn't happen either.

And I wish CZ well. I know him personally. I like CZ. I hope he sorts through whatever these issues are. I certainly don't want to see anything happen to Binance. But I think people need to understand that the ecosystem known as the cryptocurrency markets, Bitcoin, Ethereum, et cetera, are very resilient. And there's a lot of pent-up demand coming into the space. You can just see it in the on-chain analysis that we do at the firm.