“Why I Invested 50% of my Net Worth in Bitcoin” | Anthony Scaramucci

Michael sailor did the homework and then when Michael sailor got done doing the homework he couldn't sleep he said Anthony I couldn't sleep once I figured out what Bitcoin was like how am I going to buy enough of this network how am I going to do it and so he's in so I'm telling you on the margin there's going to be a legion of people this year that do that homework and get long Bitcoin welcome to bankless where we

explore the frontier of Internet money and internet Finance this is Ryan Sean Adams David is out today and I'm here to help you become more bangless guys different type of podcast today we have Anthony scaramucci on the podcast wanted to have him on to get the trafi perspective the Wall Street perspective on everything that is going on in crypto of course 2024 has been a year marked by Wall Street entering crypto in a very big way we've got the ETFs we've got people like Larry fin weighing in on it

and now at the end of 2024 we have a new Administration taking the Helm of which Anthony knows a thing or two about we talk about a few things number one the election of Donald Trump what this means for crypto two the likelihood of a strategic Bitcoin Reserve Anthony is actually very bullish on this and he explains why number three how crypto pilled is Wall Street actually is there more evangelism to be done what's left to do there and number four advice for investors who are trying to make it to the other side not just just in this market but in all markets guys let's get

right to the episode with Anthony scaramucci Bank list nation very excited to introduce you to Anthony scaramucci he is a finance guy an entrepreneur I would say also maybe a political figure he's uh definitely a crypto bull though and he is the current founder and managing partner of alternative investment firm skybridge Capital he uh reached I would say some pop culture uh residents after his brief tenure as the White House communications director under last tenure of President Donald Trump and he's also coming out with a book in January as next month called the

little book of Bitcoin what you need to know that Wall Street has already figured out Anthony scaramucci welcome to bankas I I appreciate being on you didn't mention the fact that I got fir from the White House though I I I figur people would know about that part know you're just being nice in terms of the introduction of the podcast good for you yeah so it was it was a firing then it wasn't Mutual then not at all well I mean listen you know if you're for 11 days you probably want to stay longer than 11 days but you know I I deserve to

be fired I never I never complained about that that wasn't anything I complain all right I get it um why don't we start there actually because this year was a pretty big election it had definitely some uh outcomes for for crypto did you have any takes on this election uh going into it well I mean listen I got I got it wrong I didn't think Donald Trump was going to win I said that uh openly I looked at the map and looked at the demography of the country and I said I don't think he's going to win but ultimately you have two

choices and I think if I'm being fair I think kamla Harris had a hard Road it was 107 days uh it's was very hard to build a campaign she had people working for her that weren't her people she inherited the Joe Biden campaign literally when she went into the convention Ryan she was it it it said Joe Biden on the platform you know was it was sort of a rush thing yeah and Donald Trump in

2024 when I was working for him in 2016 during that campaign he was a very famous person and he was probably in the top 100 celebrities in the world when he ran in 2024 he was by far the most famous person in the world so he had name recognition and name saturation on all six of the continents that have people and so it's hard you know you're you're uh you're you're somebody that's not well known U Ryan the day before the

election the most searchable term related to the the election was did Joe Biden drop out actually hilarious and sad you a little bit that the American population is so uninformed yeah so but it just gives you a sense of what was going on and so for me what I would say to you is I didn't I I figured he says things that that I would I I thought people would be like okay we can't really return to that right so he's talking about non-white immigrants like they're subhuman he says he wants

to deport 15 million people he said last Sunday that U you know if you're in the country and you were born here and therefore you had Birthright citizenship if your mother was not here legally well we're going to revoke your citizenship and we're going to deport the whole family so let me give you a real fact set I know somebody in the country 30 years not here legally has had three children ages uh 18 to 25 they're all American citizens they've never worked or lived anywhere else with this country

and so what Donald Trump is saying is he'll kick the mom out and then pull those kids out of their schools out of their jobs and Deport them alongside of their mom so I looked at that and said okay I don't think the American people want that now on the flip side uh if you're a Wall Street person Wall Street said no he doesn't really mean that he said a 100 things 20 things he said were really good and those are the things he really means the other 80 things that he said that are nonsensical or potentially would hurt the country he doesn't really

mean so we'll have to see what happens you know people are talking about executive orders that are going to get signed on January 20th that start the process of deportation if that's the case I think it's going to be a very ugly thing for the country if if he's not going to do that God bless look I want him to do well he's the president um uh she lost he won I hope he does well uh I I think he's got phenomenal political instincts because the Harris team and vice president Harris herself did not understand the impact that they

were having negative impact that they were having politically related to crypto yes and so you had arbitrary and capricious Behavior you you know things that these people accuse Donald Trump of doing frankly they were doing that would be Gary Gensler and Elizabeth Warren so the the law said that you had to approve a Bitcoin ETF Gary Gensler said no uh but you're not above the law Gary this is what the law says you can't be arbitrary and capricious in the administration of the law but Gary said

no and so he he delayed personally he personally delayed the Bitcoin PTF for two years that should have been approved in January or February of 22 it didn't get approved until 2 for now you could also say well you know what we got lucky maybe that helped the industry because it exposed Sam bankman freed it exposed leverage in the system like three arrows and leverage in the system like Celsius and others imploded and maybe he cleaned out by accident a lot of the

undesirables in the crypto markets but still uh people were upset they went into the voting booth and they voted people out that were anti- crypto Fair shake the political action committee they went 48 for 48 on these campaigns shered Brown uh and I I know you're younger than me Ryan and perhaps your viewership is younger than me but these senior Senators they have a 95% chance of getting reelected 95% chance and

sherid brown who was the chairman of the Banking Committee Senate Banking Committee a friend in acolyte of Elizabeth Warren Mr anti crypto himself got blown out of the seat $40 million of crypto money went into that campaign and so the irony is the Democrats still don't understand it when you meet with them and do a debriefing they don't understand it they've got some SEC commissioner who's Miss anti- crypto and they're trying to

jam her in here before Joe Biden's term is out so it's like okay guys you're going to lose every election for the next 20 years you know the American people have spoken they want to own cryptocurrencies and they want cryptocurrencies in their portfolio and they know that there's a great competition with other nations and they want to make sure that the United States can maintain its mantle of financial services leadership so what the hell are you guys doing and and and give Donald Trump credit for that he understood it

he raised money off of it he went to the Bitcoin conference he's given several speeches I was with Eric Trump this past week now I'm no longer friendly with Eric but I saw his speech at the Bitcoin thing and I applaud Eric for what he said yeah you know you know politics is rough you know once Trump went after my wife on Twitter that was the end of my relationship with him you know I'm I'm not Ted Cruz do I look like Ted Cruz I'm noted you know you're not allowed to do that in my family your take then as well

I mean this is certainly the the crypto take and it's hard to know sometimes whether we're in a bubble of this is like the anti- crypto Army on the Democrat side Elizabeth Warren Gary Gensler that whole cohort and then the lack of like KLA Harris pivot on crypto in any way she wouldn't say a thing in her campaign that was Pro crypto do you think that cost her the election or at least there were three things that cost her the election number one she was having a very hard time defining herself uh again Donald Trump was everywhere every podcast that Donald Trump went on

she should have went on she wouldn't do it uh she went on Fox News it was one week prior to the election and she should have been on Fox news for all 107 days she couldn't do it she wouldn't do it she couldn't explain the situation going on in the economy the economy is actually improving wages have grown wages have frankly outpaced inflation lower and middle- inome wages last four years inflation has been terrible for our society but the wages have been better than the inflation and there was

aoup couple of pieces of legislation that they passed that was quite good the restoring of manufacturing $250 billion the chips act moving microprocessor foundaries into the United States the bridges roads and tunnels that have been rebuilt during the inflation reduction act way wages went up as a result of that so she couldn't explain it and then the third thing and this is something that Trump was masterful on again we have to be objective there's a culture

in our society that most Americans don't like it's the cancel culture it's the pronoun designation culture it's the you said something mean so therefore we're going to knock you out of your job and there were moms you know 55% of the white women voted for Donald Trump 46% of all women voted for Donald Trump and when they came out of the P polling say hey had enough of this we we made a vote to protect our kids our Sons our

brothers our husbands and and I and I you know it was by the way it was so resonating that AOC who looked at the cross tabs on her election people voted for her Ryan but many of her supporters split the ticket and voted for Donald Trump and so she asked her supporters why they told her and then the very next day she took the pronoun designation off of her Twitter feed so the the the Democrats have to

shape up they've got to go they've got to return to Blue Collar lower and middle- income families with Solutions and they've got to cut this nonsense about scolding people about the way they live or scolding people about the way they talk I just I really believe that now having said all of that it was still a very close election I know president Trump likes to say that he want to BU a landslide and it was an overwhelming mandate and all the sudden but he didn't you know he's got one member of the House more than the

Democrats he won by a couple of million votes great because most people didn't think he was going to win the popular vote but not great when you compare it to 16 of the most recent presidential elections I mean he I think he's got the second most narrowest if you will the second narrowest Victory but in that list Anthony you didn't mention crypto at all in that list of three so like like crypto we like to think that we're important we were sort of an election issue Tech I thought that was the first

one I was saying there were three other things in addition to her stance on crypto yeah I want to know I think crypto really hurt her yeah and I think crypto really hurt them in the Congress in in the Senate and in the house with shrod brown and some of those shared Brown the guy Casey from Pennsylvania got knocked out by McCormack right it really hurt them I think there's a lot of people in crypto that that don't want crypto to like that that hope that crypto is not a bipartisan issue like moving forward right and then hope maybe

the the anti- crypto arm is kind of nullified in the Democratic party that is just like no longer has teeth that it's a thing of the past that uh you crypto returns to a bipartisan issue do you think Democrats have really like have they learned their lesson you you were just uh you're pointing out the example of this vote for Caroline krenshaw SEC commissioner that I believe was like this week they're putting her up for vote and I heard that Brian Armstrong the crypto industry was basically like hey Congress be careful how you vote on this one because we're

watching and remember Fair shake and uh re remember the races that um like we they'll be double the money next time so there was $250 million went into these campaign it'll be double next time yeah okay so have they learned the lesson is no no well I said that they haven't learned a lesson I've been on that that seems so shoot yourself in the foot that seems so well I I asked the question to some of these Democrats and I'm going to ask you the question I want you to give me the answer I know it's your podcast but let me ask you

this question did Democrats win any votes being anti- crypto and having a quote unquote anti- crypto Army did Democrats win any votes Z the democr did she win any electoral no one vot no one votes for a politician because they're anti- crypto I just I can't believe that that's my answer so what I said to these guys what are you doing exactly you know the rest of the world has embraced crypto the I mean China hasn't but trust me China's coming into the swimming pool

again you just watch it's just a matter of time but the Western world has embraced it all we're asking for is fair regulation we're not asking for no regulation we want there to be safety we want there to be transparency we want to eliminate fraud such just better for all of us but you tell me you know I I think these guys they do not get it uh just the fact that they put her up in the lame duck SE session post elction is the

sign they don't get it and I and I'll say something that worries me if you don't mind because you have some really smart people that come on your podcast and we have to influence these people we do not want crypto and what I mean by crypto its regulation and the manifestation of its growth in the United States to be owned solely by President Trump we want this to be a bipartisan issue let me tell you something that they did that also hurt them maybe this would be fifth on the list in January of 2000 21 Joe Biden

repealed all of the executive orders related to The Border restrictions that Donald Trump put in place and he said these things were inhumane and because Trump did it we hate it and Trump's an evil person and so we're going to revoke him but if you don't like Donald Trump or you think he's a bad guy analyze some of the policies some of these policies are quite good and that was catastrophic for the Democrats and what's at risk here Ryan Donald Trump likes it Donald

Trump is bad so therefore now we will do the opposite of Donald Trump 100% anthy I you agree with me right so we have to get these guys off of that and we have to make sure that this is a bipartisan thing remember China and our defense of our indries against China using tariffs was a good idea by Donald Trump it wasn't embraced immediately by the Democrats but they now both in a bipartisan way embrace it we've got to get them to embrace crypto the same way

I'm sorry stepped you but I just wanted to say that no I was just going to agree with you and and I don't know if that's a solvable problem kind of the the whip whipsaw sort of effect which is like I just saw a clip um earlier this week from MSNBC and they were talking about Trump's advocacy for a strategic Bitcoin Reserve right and of course like they they never talk about crypto they never talk about Bitcoin but in this context be because uh Trump Is So Pro Bitcoin Pro crypto they have to whipsaw on the other side of it right this is almost

like makeup reasons why they don't like it I I want to ask you maybe a more tactical question because it does seem like obviously we had an anti- crypto administration at least in like the executive uh Branch we had operation chokepoint we had Gary gendler we had all of these things what do you think about the uh the cabinet and some of the administrative positions you got SEC the the name is Paul Atkins we've got uh cftc chair lots of good names around there uh summer mercenier who's been on the show uh Brian quintens possibilities

we've got a crypto Zar type position we've got maybe favorable treasury as well I mean what do you think about this um this uh Administration that that Trump is putting in place with respect to its its crypto posture yeah that's a good that's a good part you know it's funny Trump is a you know not that we're talking about astrology on your podcast but Trump is a Gemini right so he's got he's he's a twin he's got two people in one body right he's got the the evil Bad twin and then he's got the good twin right and so you get a mixed bag with the guy and the stuff coming out on

crypto is I think fantastic I think you learn when you do these things when I was on his transition team in 2016 you learn that Personnel is policy and so bent positive on crypto understands it wants us to be a force in crypto Atkins positive on crypto understands the libertarian concepts of it wants the United States to fairly uh regulate crypto Howard lutnick he told Anthony Pomano he's got hundreds

of millions of dollars of Bitcoin I guess he's gonna have to put that in a blind trust at this point but he's Secretary of Commerce loves crypto so Personnel being policy and those are just some of them I mean there's a there's a whole list of others you know what about David Sachs you know David Sachs is going to go be the quarterback inside the White House to help run Ai and crypto strategy does position have power by the way the cryptos are thing see see it's interesting it doesn't have to have power but it can have influence and so

meaning everything is coming into your field of vision and you're like okay let me go to the president on this it's important president certainly has power he'll call administrative agencies he'll call senators and House of Representatives to move things for me or he can provide context or he can provide advice do you see what I mean yeah and so I think it doesn't have power where he can trigger pull on something but it has influence remember

there are two types of levers in Washington one is power executive orders you vote on the house floor the senate floor for a bill and the other one is influence you're a council yary to the president or you're an aid a congressional Aid and you're advising people on what to do or how to vote uh th th th those jobs are not direct power Ryan but they're powerful enough do you think we'll get a strategic Bitcoin Reserve you think

that's I do actually what does that look like do you think so so we had cynthy uh lumus on the podcast and basically if you read through her bull uh her bill that is the the very first proposals is basically keep the Bitcoin you already have the US has like 200,000 Bitcoin in reserve right so that would be level one Trump could maybe do something like that and kind of call that a success now going beyond that actually purchasing Bitcoin actually creating a uh like a Fort Knox for for crypto maybe that's possible as well but what what do you think is going to happen here well first

I'm very close to her I'm very close to Tim Scott they were both at my conference in Wyoming obviously she's the senator from a senator from the great state of Wyoming and we talked about it over the summer they've got the votes uh Hagerty wants it McCormick wants it they have the votes in the Senate you think I think so yeah there's I do think so yes for like to to her bill to get a million Bitcoin right that was her full B bill right keep this stuff gets horse traded so you

you'll probably have 200 won't get sold they'll probably buy another four or 500,000 Bitcoin what over over the next you don't think I I it's okay so I mean we've been in crypto for a while the fact that we're even talking about it still honestly blows my mind but yes we had a sitting Senator talk about let me tell you why I think it will happen Okay Trump wants it to happen and he's got the Senate Banking Committee Tim Scott

wants it to happen he's going to be the chair of the Senate Bank Bing committee bent wants it to happen uh if you're telling me there are no Democrats and I don't believe this because a lot of Democrats voted for the Saab 121 Bill if you looked at the dispersion of vote it was a bipartisan approval of that bill and by the way Ryan it was if you were 40 or 50 let's say you were below the age of 60 you voted for the bill if you were a Democrat if you were a fossil like

Elizabeth Warren or sherid Brown you voted against it so if you're telling me there are no Democrats that are going to vote for that then I'll say okay then we're not going to get it but I don't see that I think ran would vote for it I think there's a lot of Democrats who look at it and say if Bitcoin is digital gold and we have $600 billion of gold on Reserve at our bank in the Federal Reserve Bank you're telling me we couldn't put 7 5 to100

billion do of Bitcoin on reserve is that what you're saying and and by the way you may even liquidate some of that gold to do that you're saying that's not possible that' be so wild to me I I just like but but like maybe that's a possibility what what about the people who say Cynthia say to you what did send her to Luma City I mean she obviously is a is a bull she thinks it can happen and by the way it's like I watched that M MSNBC clip they were saying oh Trump's going to like sell gold to buy Bitcoin he's not the the the lumus bill was not actually selling gold it was is actually just like adjusting the value of gold uh

on on the US balance sheet to the fair market value it's like Book value right now a fair market value and then you use that excess and go buy so they're not even talking about selling gold but um yeah I mean she's obviously bullish but she is a a massive uh Bitcoin uh bull as you know I mean there there's a counter uh like take to this which is hey you don't want to you you'll Nerf you'll uh lose the confidence of the US dollar if you start go purchasing assets that's like like Bitcoin right because then then people will say oh well actually what is uh the dollar backed by is you

know is the is the Fed scared is treasury scared why do they need this non Fiat asset to to start backing its currency and you could cause problems that way what do you think about that you know I mean it's possible I I guess I guess the question is what stage are we at uh I maybe because I've been in the space long longer than some of these people maybe I think we're F further along but if you're at the stage that I think we're at where people like Larry think and people at Franklin

Templeton Jenny Johnson and people like uh Abigail Johnson at Fidelity and you name the different people that are recommending allocations and the comparisons are the you know if I say it's if it's digital gold you know my buddy Michael saor will get mad at me because he he calls it digital property I mean he's he's called me and said I heard you on that podcast it's not digital gold but let's just for the sake of this argument let's say that it is digital gold to these people and

if we're at that point and we're in a modern society and Trump wants to make a statement and we believe rightly or wrongly that the Chinese are going to move to buy Bitcoin and they're going to move to make it a strategic Reserve asset for the Chinese economy and the Chinese government and if that's the case what are we talking about we're talking about 7080 billion do you know to put it in perspective we've got a $6 trillion budget so you're talking about

1% of it 1.5% of the budget to buy Bitcoin but we're also talking about it over five years so you're talking about 30 basis points of the budget over five years which could you know tionally strengthen the dollar and could put the United States on better competitive footing or at least tie the United States with other Western Nations you know said said differently if you put me in that seat

forget about the fact that I own Bitcoin if you put me in that seat and said is it in the United States's National interest to have a strategic Reserve in Bitcoin I would say yes and then if you said to me why I would say three reasons number one I do believe it's digital gold and I think the future is changing and I would want to have it on our balance sheet like we do gold even if it even if you said I had to sell hundred billion dollars of gold and replace it with hundred billion dollar of Bitcoin number two your generation forget about

me I'm an old Fort but you're a young man your generation is going to live further and deeper in the digital world than me you know I'm old enough to remember when the internet didn't exist I'm old enough to remember when AOL was the way we got into the internet and I have a you know should I embarrass myself on your bankless podcast and tell you that I have an AOL email I do you really you're laughing you're laughing at because that was the way you got in now I have other emails yeah but I had

that one I still have it well okay okay you had to pay for it yeah you know they give it to you for free now but you had to pay a monthly fee to have an AOL email and so I'm telling you your generation is going to be way more sophisticated about this stuff well I I I got to say I mean the reason I like I sound so surprised is because the Ripple effects of the kind of the the most powerful country in the world like the economy in the world like kind of basically with the reserve currency setting Financial policy

purchasing Bitcoin setting up a Bitcoin strategic Reserve that would be massive because that sets off you know the game theory of every single country has to own it after that there's like nine countries that own Bitcoin right now and I was just looking about at this earlier in the the week the two that have the most most notably are the us right now and China and they both have around 200,000 Bitcoin and it's both through confiscation right so the idea is that like maybe these governments are going to sell it they haven't established it as government policy that they're

continuing to acquire Bitcoin um but it's notable that the two largest kind of superpowers economic Rivals have the same amount of Bitcoin and if if the US starts acquiring more what is China going to do whether they declare it or not whether they're explicit about it or not you know I'm a cynical person I think China is already acquiring it probably yeah I think I think they're already acquiring it because they're like holy you know blank blank that you know Trump is gonna be long and pro

Bitcoin we kicked all the bitcoiners out of this country and again more evidence about the strength and resiliency of Bitcoin they kicked all the bitcoiners out of the country and 10% of the mining Ryan still happens in China so so to me I don't know I mean look this is the stuff I like about Trump right you know like I said you have a good twin and you have a bad twin in there and the good twin is like yeah we're going to have a muscular defense and we're going to have a muscular uh National Economic story and

Bitcoin could be a very big part of that for people also remember you're spending globally $7 trillion on verification of transaction actions that's everything from accountants and lawyers and wire fees credit card fees I could take you through the whole verification economy it's $7 trillion if you're telling me over the blockchain that you and I can trade and transact with each other and have the network itself the blockchain

the technology verify the transaction for us in a permissionless and let's call it trustless way because the network is something we both trust it's going to unleash trillions of dollars of capital that can get deployed into more economic Innovation and and we saw this happen with the internet 30 years ago we saw this happen when we broke up AT&T uh again not only am I old enough to remember an AOL account I'm old enough to remember being in Europe and

being told at the post office in Rome if I wanted to call my parents it was $5 a minute okay we can go to any Cafe in Rome today and log into their internet and we can call like George jeton does or the way you and I are doing right now we can FaceTime our parents and so so the world is changing and the world is changing for the better there was a group of politicians in the United States that did not want to embrace and accept that change and they got their