Today I am excited to welcome back a returning guest. Anthony Scaramucci is a successful entrepreneur. He’s a thought leader and bestselling author. He’s also the founder and managing partner of SkyBridge, as well as the founder and chairman of Salt Global Thought Leadership Forum. You may also recall Anthony’s infamous tenure as White House Communications Director and Chief Strategy Officer under President Donald Trump during his first term.
Anthony is back on the show to give his unique perspective on the current state of the union we call it. And talk about his newest book, the Little Book of Bitcoin, where he dives into the world of digital assets and how Bitcoin is reshaping finance. Anthony, it’s great to see you again. Welcome back to the show.
I.
Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me, and since you’re allowing me to promote my book, I’ll just throw that here for your YouTube followers. Uh, that’s, that’s Irma’s orange there, David. Okay. And so thank you. The book is doing well and obviously Bitcoin is an asset that, uh. We’re big believers on last time we were together, I was explaining to you the flack I was taking for being in Bitcoin.
And I guess, you know, you never feel vindicated in life and Bitcoin is quite volatile. So I’ve, I’ve been humbled by life and market, so I’m not ready to declare victory yet. Uh, but I do like directionally where things are going and uh, but I think Bitcoin is going to be part of a long-term strategic asset in lots of portfolios, including institutional investor portfolio, sovereign wealth funds, et cetera.
So I’m long-term bullish on Bitcoin.
Yeah. Uh, US as well. I, I agree with you there. Um, I do wanna unpack and get into a few of the details there. Uh, like I said, I was excited when I saw the book. So, somebody like you who has made a, you know, SkyBridge has made a pivot to, you know, digital assets in, in Bitcoin.
So I do wanna unpack that, but when we have the famous Anthony Scaramucci on the show, um, you know, I really do want to get your perspective on all that’s taken place, uh, over the past year. ’cause it seems like a decade, uh, since we’ve had you on the show. But it hasn’t, it’s only been a year because. A year ago we were in the thick of the, uh, election, the race there, but now it’s official.
Right? Trump is back in the White House for second term. I wanted to ask you this question ’cause it’s, it’s really interesting what he’s been doing over the past few weeks. Like how would you compare the early stages of this term, uh, to his first, which you were a part of? Is this playing out as you predicted or are we seeing a different approach this time around, especially in terms of his leadership style?
Well,
well, you know, I would say as predicted, I would say that it’s a little bit more organized. I would say that he’s, uh, he’s, uh, more experienced, frankly. Uh, he did the presidency one time before. I think he brought people into the presidency, myself included, that were. Uh, less cultish with him and more about balance.
I mean, I, you know, I, I got fired 48 hours after he told me I was a deep stater, and I laughed. I looked at him, I was like, I’m, I’m a deep stater. I mean, I’ve been to Washington like one time on a school field trip. I’m, I’m definitely not a deep stater, but I am somebody that took an oath to the constitution.
And wanna abide by the document. And I don’t, I saw Trump and people should see him, president Trump as a guardian of the institution of the presidency. You know, I got told in the eighth grade that that was the people’s house. That’s why you’re allowed to have a tour of it and that the president is there caretaking that institution.
On behalf of the American people looking after the American people. I didn’t see it as a fiefdom or an autocratic realm, and I didn’t see it as a, uh, a destination to be a wrecking ball. For the American Society or the North American, uh, group of people that have been longstanding allies. I didn’t see it that way, so I got summarily fired very quickly.
Uh, but he has a group of people now with him that are willing, acolytes, uh, to what he wants to do. I. And, and with Trump, I’ll say this to you before you ask me another question. With Trump, it’s a buffet table. David, you gotta, you gotta buy the whole buffet. You get force fed stuff that you don’t like at the buffet table.
You want to go to the buffet table with your plate, and you want some tax cuts, and maybe you want some deregulation and maybe you want a little bit of pro crypto policy, and those are things you may want. But he says, no, you can’t. Can’t just eat that. You’ve gotta eat my meme coin that I’m gonna launch 48 hours before the presidency.
You gotta, you got eat my, uh, uh, governor Trudeau, and we’re gonna make Canada the 51st state and the Gulf of America. You got to eat my potential acquisition of Greenland and you gotta eat my disavow of western democracies. And you got to eat me telling, uh, Volo Mayor Zelensky that he’s a dictator. You know, so, so in other words, the buffet table from Trump.
Is everything. And normal people that look at that are like, you know, that’s, we, we don’t need that. You know, honestly, we don’t need that. And, and moreover, he’s been favorable for Bitcoin. He’s made me richer, but at the same time, he’s taking something outta Bitcoin and the market, this meme coin stuff that he did with his wife has been a disaster.
Uh, it’s really hurt the Solana network. It’s really hurt Bitcoin. Well, it is crashing. It’s
been a bad week. Yeah, it’s been a bad week. It’s been a and, um, a bad week. What did like. Again, you know, I get to, you know, the book in a second here, but I had to this week, you know? What in the world did you make of that AI generated video that either he, his team put out?
I’m not sure who put that out, but a future trumpified version of Gaza was very bizarre. Like I. Can you decipher it? ’cause
Well, I mean, the only thing I’m happy about is that he didn’t have him. I mean, he had him and Netanyahu in Mankinis. Okay. And thank God they weren’t at a nude beach. You know? I mean, that was the only thing I was happy about with that thing.
But I mean, you know, that’s an example of the ridiculousness that represents Donald Trump. And so I, I have people that’ll send me emails and say that they love Trump and he’s good for ending DEI and he’s great for Israel and he’s great for this, and he’s great for that. And there are elements to truth of what those people are saying, but there’s also elements of destruction.
We don’t need leadership that does this. This is attention getting. This is television production. This is spending your life as a reality television store, and therefore now you’re gonna produce conflict from the White House as a reality television star. And so remember. When you’re creating reality television, you have to have conflict, and so you have conflict.
You get people to watch. So he’s, he wants conflict with everybody and so, so that it’s not, it’s not great for us. So this. This meme that he sent out was done to quote unquote own the lips. Okay? He wants to do more and more outrageous things, uh, that display some type of mental unwellness, uh, so that liberals can be owned and people can be scratching their heads.
But you know, that’s not real leadership. Okay? That’s not wholesome. Morally anchored real leadership. So he’s got his people that, well, they like this aspect of him or they like that aspect of him, so they’re gonna support him. And I, I understand that, but he’s weakening the institution of the presidency and he’s weakening the image of the United States.
You know, before we started the program, you and I were talking about. It’d be great surprise that our nations are booing each other’s national anthem. So the Canadian National Anthem and the Canadians are, are booing the American national anthem. And I, I find it reprehensible. We don’t need to be doing that to each other.
We’ve been friends for hundreds of years on this continent. We’ve, you know, Trump wants to go after the Canada. He wants to put in all these tariffs and then people are telling them, well, you know, uh, Southern California gets most of its LEC electricity from Alberta. Are you sure you wanna do that? Oh, by the way, we set up our refineries here in United States to refine Alberta based crude oil.
Mm-hmm. Uh, do you wanna shut it down now? Uh, what would you, what would you like to do? We, we’ve, we’ve cohabitated peacefully on the continent and we’ve integrated our economies to help each nation. Why do you want to be antagonistic now with Canada? And the nonsense that the playing field is uneven and all this sort of stuff is nonsense Now he is right about a few things.
This was always the weird part of Trump. Um, the waterways in the Arctic are melting. I. There’s more adversarial activity, naval vessels in those waterways that threaten Canada and the United States. And because America is a bigger economy, our military is shouldering that, the potential defense of North America.
Okay. But mm-hmm. I would argue that in exchange for that the United States is getting a, uh, non-military border, or the United States is getting a lot of cheap energy from Canada and the United States is getting. A lot of economic benefit as well. And so, so let me, let me say this to you and then you can ask me another question.
I want you to answer this for me. I have a blue collar family. There’s one person in the blue collar family that goes on to great riches and success. They buy college tuitions and they buy cars for some of the family members and they’re trying to lift the living standards of their family members and maybe they pay for some down payments on a house or they handle some, uh, medical expenses that are in an emergency.
That’s one family. The other family, the same thing happens. One person rises to great riches and they have this gorgeous mansion in this very large swimming pool, and they want to charge their family members to come into their swimming pool. Say, Hey, David. Like I have my swimming pool today. It’s a beautiful sunny day, but I need $25 from you and each of your children to come swim in my swimming pool.
You’re my brother. Which family is gonna do better, David? Which family is gonna do better? I. Yeah, it, it, it’s a no brainer. We, we have 25 to 26% of the world’s output. Were 4% of the world’s people. Mm-hmm. When the United States has set itself up like family number one, we have done better in the world.
There’s greater harmony in the world. There’s, we’re rowing the boat together. And people feel fairly. So when Trump says, well, we’re gonna have reciprocal tariffs with everybody, well, when you do that, you’re gonna weaken America’s standing in the world. Uh, well after the end of World War ii. We had 2% of the population, 65% of the world’s output.
We uneven the tariffs. We accepted goods and services into the United States unfettered by our tariffs, and we allowed certain nations to have tariffs so that they could protect their working people and raise living standards. This was very. Very good long-term policy, including the Marshall Plan I might add for the United States.
And so now Trump wants to take a wrecking ball to all of that, and I’m telling you that will have very negative consequences, karmic, economic and otherwise. One more question I do have to ask you about before we move on to the book of, we’re getting there, we’re getting there. One more question is a, a lot of discussion about Elon Musk and his influence, um, you know, with Trump in the White House. What is going on there?
Like, have you given that any thought? Like what, what’s your take on, on Elon? ’cause watching him in the Oval Office, you know, standing next to it, just. A lot of people are a little confused by it and wondering what the whole situation is or what the relationship is.
First of all, first of all, I respect Elon Musk and I will tell your viewers and listeners that I am an owner of SpaceX.
I do own X. Mm-hmm. Um, I have a piece of X AI as an investor, and I think Elon Musk is a brilliant entrepreneur. He’s a quirky guy, and he’s now gone, what he would say, dark maga, which I think is a mistake for him. Mm-hmm. I got in trouble. Uh, with the hard right when I said Elon should stick to business, they thought I was threatening him.
I’m not threatening him. He’s not wired for Washington, Elon Musk. Mm-hmm. And what will end up happening is his businesses will get hurt. He will get hurt. I’m not saying he’s gonna get hurt physically, but I’m saying that they’ll do things to him that I wish they wouldn’t do to him. Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Very successful genius, like human being.
But the go, what’s going on right now is Elon Musk got jilted by the Democrats. Bobby Kennedy got jilted by the Democrats, and so the Democrats have to answer for that. Remember, the rise of Donald Trump is concomitant to the desecration and the dematerialization of the Democratic party. Uh, they can’t get the s**t together.
Will Rogers said he was once a member of, uh, six disorganized parties. He’s a Democrat. That’s exactly what they’re doing right now. There’s no cohesion. There was a failed baton transfer intergenerationally. Biden needed to have stepped outta that race in September of 23. Uh, and there should have been a robust primary, and then a challenger would’ve beaten Donald Trump.
They did everything wrong. They gave Vice President Harris 107 days to try to beat Donald Trump, the most famous person in the world. And she lost narrowly, she only lost by one and a half percent of the vote. And so you have to look at it in the context of everything. But what they did to Elon Musk was ridiculous.
They invited him to the EV summit. They then have the UAW president call them and say, he can’t be at the e, the u EV summit. And, and Biden should have said to him, are you crazy? I gotta keep this guy in the fold as a Democrat. Yeah. He’s coming to the summit and you’re gonna shut up and take it. But he Disinvited Musk.
Mm-hmm. So Musk went crazy. He deployed his ego and he helped Donald Trump. Donald Trump was s**tting all over Elon Musk in 2018. In 19, he’s on his knees begging, you know, I mean, all that s**t that he did, now they’re lovers. All of a sudden it doesn’t work that way. Right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So these are two guys that love a lot of attention.
They’ve got gigantic egos. And in my business past performance is not an indication of future results, but in human personalities it is. Mm-hmm. Donald Trump has alienated everybody, including his wife, his family members. He’s alienated every one of his staffers eventually. And Elon Musk will be alienated from Donald Trump.
I see him as Steve Bannon of the 2.0 in the administration, so, mm-hmm. That’s a six to eight month run. Mm-hmm. And then Trump will get tired of him. But Elon is so rich. Trump’s not going to blow him up. It’s not gonna be a ric bounce from the White House or a Ric bounce from the scene. It’ll be one of these things.
Mm. Elon, you did a good job. We saved a hundred or $200 million from Doge. Uh, bye-bye. Go back to rockets in electric cars. Yeah. Okay. And that, that’s what’ll happen. If it doesn’t happen, you’ll invite me back on and I’ll say, wow. Uh, Donald Trump is a changed man. He was able to, at age 79. Mm-hmm. He’ll be 79 on the 14th of June.
He was able to at 79 as an old dog, learn new tricks. And he, him and Elon Musk are, uh, our great partners.
Yeah.
I don’t see that happening. And, and he gave a big tell at the cabinet meeting this week. He said, whoever doesn’t like Elon Musk, speak out now. Okay. That’s a projection. Mm-hmm. You don’t have to read William Shakespeare to know that Donald Trump thinks Elon Musk is a pain in his ass.
Mm-hmm. Elon Musk is getting too much attention. Mm-hmm. Okay. And he will flavory Elon Musk right now because it owns the lips. It owns the lips to do this. Mm-hmm. But I know Trump’s personality, Musk has gotten too much attention. And Musk will be, uh, Mela by by Trump. By, you know, as we get to September by Labor Day, you’ll see that this thing will de dematerialize.
And by the way, I like, I like Musk’s uh, entrepreneurship. Mm-hmm. I’m not in love with some of his opinions. Yeah. I’m not in love with the way he goes about certain things, but he is a brilliant guy, and I wish him great success. I, I’m glad that he’s here in the United States mm-hmm. As an innovator. But I don’t, I don’t, I don’t think we want to do some of the things that they’re trying to do from a process point of view.
They’re not, they’re not classic American value driven decisions.
Yeah. Yeah. And I think, I, I don’t know how many people know that he’s actually Canadian. Like he’s got a Canadian passport. Yeah. I don’t know how many people know that, because some of,
some of your, uh, Canadian natives are trying to get his passport revoked.
I know, I know. I saw that. I saw that. Anyways, uh, they shouldn’t
do that. Leave. Leave the guy alone. Yeah. Leave him alone, man. Go back, go back to making rockets and cars, man. And by the way, you know, you’re, you’re, you know what? You know what? He is an additive to the society. Mm-hmm. But I just think this s**t with Trump is gonna hurt him.
Mm-hmm. Long term. He’s no doubt he’s that on him. And I’m not saying he’s gonna be hurt physically. Like they’re trying to accuse me of saying, I’m not saying that. No, it’s not
good. No, but you know, it’s such an interesting topic and, and, and hearing your breakdown is, is much appreciated. Um, okay, uh, let’s talk about your latest project.
You are one of the busiest people I know. Uh, the little book of Bitcoin, what you need to know that Wall Street has already figured out. Um, you’ve been a passionate advocate of, uh, crypto for a while now. Uh, and in this book you do break down the transformative power of Bitcoin. I. Here’s the question.
What inspired you to write it now, and what do you hope readers take away from it, especially those who are still skeptical about the future of digital assets?
It’s a great question. Okay? Mm-hmm. I wrote this book as a allegory. This is a story. Mm-hmm. Okay? Mm-hmm. This is a story of my. Skepticism. Mm-hmm.
Is a story of Michael Sailor skepticism. Uh, most Bitcoiners come in skeptical. They don’t understand it, and then they do the homework. Now, I’m not saying everybody that does the homework buys Bitcoin. Maybe there’s a hundred people will do the homework. I do believe 90 people will buy it all. Tudor Jones, Stanley Druckenmiller, Ray Dalio, Michael Sailor, myself, Anthony Pompano, you do the homework.
You recognize that this is a hard asset. This is incredible software that has created a hard asset that represents value, and there’s a technology associated with that asset where we can transfer it to each other without permission from a government or permission from a third party. If you understand that concept, that concept could save the world.
Trillions of dollars said differently. If I go to a restaurant with you. If I can pay wallet to wallet with the restaurant, I save three and a half percent.
Mm-hmm.
If I do a transaction with you outside of the circumference of the bank, I’m gonna save money. There’s $7 trillion spent in our global society per annum.
Verifying each other’s transactions. Let’s face it, David, we don’t like and we don’t trust each other, so we always have third parties in the mix. I’m gonna buy your house. You’re gonna wait for your attorney and your bank to say, my money, hit your account before you hand me the deed. This is a decentralized network, hundreds of thousands of people working together, which create that.
And when you really understand it and you understand the technical aspects of it and the simplicity of it, it’s something that can get you very excited and you say, okay, this is gonna be with us. Okay. And somebody says, well, Bitcoin is worthless. Okay. Is the Mona Lisa worth anything? You know, I brought props ’cause I knew we were gonna do this by.
Got a problem. This is an Italian single in my neighborhood. You see this for a pops? This is uh, go Google it. It’s 75% cotton. It’s 25% linen. And for those listening and not looking on YouTube, I’m showing David a $100 bill. It’s got Ben Franklin’s picture on it. It’s got a counterfeit strip. Is this worth anything?
No. It’s a piece of fabric that’s in my pocket, but if I give it to the valet. Who’s dropping off my car? He’s a happy camper because this is a piece of technology that he can use to get something that he wants. Okay? This is a technology that we use so we don’t have to barter with each other. Bitcoin represents that someone tells you it’s worthless, that they don’t understand what it is.
It’s a piece of technology. I have digits in my bank account right now. Are they worth anything? They’re digits. Correct. You’re my, you’re my auto dealer. You’re my Mercedes-Benz auto dealer. You have a bank account? I have a bank account. What is your bank? It’s a spreadsheet. Mm-hmm. My bank account says X.
Your bank account says Y. We agree on the price I. The digits in my bank account. Go down, your digits go up. You deliver me the car. Okay? That’s what this is. This is a hardened, fully distributed, fully transparent mechanism to exchange value in a society. And when you understand it that that level. I gotta own some of that.
That’s gonna be worth what gold is worth. Mm-hmm. Gold has got $18 trillion worth of value. This has $1.8 trillion worth of value. This could trade to where gold is. And people need to understand it and know, by the way, the American government, whether you like Donald Trump or dislike him, the American government is now more positively disposed towards digital assets.
Yeah, and they were in the last administration, uh, the UK government was already there. The Singapore government was already there. Uh, and so now people are looking around saying, whoa, we gotta own some Bitcoin. So what do we do? We own Big Abu Dhabi’s. Got it. Uh, the state of Wisconsin has it. And so over time, David, this is going to be owned by enough people.
I. Where all of us together are gonna say, yeah, that’s this digital store of value. That’s the message of the book. It’s not a technical book, it’s an allegory book. It’s people’s Odyssey into Bitcoin. My own skepticism and how I transformed into a believer and why.
Yeah. I, I think that’s important because, you know, you come from a traditional investment background, right?
And so there’s, there’s a lot of misconceptions about Bitcoin. Uh, what do you think the most common. Misconception about Bitcoin is among traditional investors,
maybe kind of
answered it there, but
the most common misconception, I would say, the most common misconception I. Is the riff-raff associated with it?
You know, this thing got started and then it was used in the Silk Road. It was used for, uh, drug trafficking. It was used for nefarious activities. And so the most common thing that I would like to break is, okay, it started that way, by the way, the, you know, the internet started. As a pipe and plumbing for porn.
Mm-hmm. Okay. It wasn’t doing super well until the pornographers realized they could use it and the pipes expanded and then everything else got dumped into it, so. Mm-hmm. So it didn’t start out well. Uh, but that period of time is over and, uh, it’s not a money laundering vehicle ’cause it’s easy to trace things on the blockchain.
That’s something I would like to dispel.
Yeah. Um, yeah, it’s an interesting, you know, we had, uh, uh, Dr on the show as well and we broke down the co ’cause he’s, I mean, the guy is just a coin stand. Brilliant guy, brilliant guy. And we had a fantastic discussion with him about, you know, um, proof of work and, and, uh, you know, it’s the mining that gave up value.
And once all Bitcoin has been mined, where does that go? It, it, you know, it finds a way, you know, which was really interesting, but. In the book, you do highlight the disruptive nature of Bitcoin and crypto, which, you know, really resonates with us and, and me and our company. Obviously, you know, you know, we’re a real estate, uh, brokerage that transacts and crypto have for many years.
We actually help our agents create a crypto portfolio. We pay them in crypto. Um, besides that, or keeping that in mind, like what industries do you foresee being most impacted by Bitcoin and crypto in the next, you know, five to 10 years?
So I actually think the, I think Wall Street will be impacted, I think.
I think we’re gonna tokenize stocks and bonds. Mm-hmm. Probably gonna tokenize real world assets like real estate eventually. But stocks and bonds, instead of going from when I started in the industry was trade date plus five, took five days for the stock to in land on my account. It’s now trade date plus one.
But with the blockchain it can be trade day plus an hour. And so we will tokenize. Uh, the other thing is the restaurant industry will be impacted. There’ll be a digital dollar on your phone, a Canadian dollar or a US dollar. You’ll go to the restaurant and you’ll be able to pay them and bypass the three point a half percent service charge.
And by the way, we’re doing something like that right now. ’cause if this was 40 years ago, we couldn’t have the George Jetson conversation that we’re having over Zoom. Uh, but we could have a phone conversation. But let’s say you lived in London and I lived in New York. We’d be getting charged by the minutes from our phone operator.
Uh, fast forward now I can go to any cafe in London, log into their wifi and make this call for no cost. Yes, there’s a monthly charge to the. Provider. But the point that I’m making is that’s where we’re going with financial transactions. Financial transactions. Now we’re still charging a per transaction fee every time we do something.
And we’re not gonna do that anymore. That’s, that’s gonna go, that’s gonna go away. So the restaurants are really gonna be deeply impacted. I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you this quick story. I was with a group of, uh, El Salvador and economists. And, uh, they were here for the UN General Assembly meeting six months ago, back in September, and the guy said to me, you know, we have 15 million El Salvador and expats in the us.
Uh, when they send money back to mom and dad, they gotta go to Western Union. They’re all unbanked. David. They put a hundred dollars bill or, or ten one hundred dollars bills on the table. A thousand dollars on the table. 10% of that goes to Western Union. $900 goes back to mom and dad. Wallet to wallet transfer over the Bitcoin network, you’re gonna save $400 million a year for those expats and their family members.
And so that’s gonna happen. That’s gonna happen. Mm-hmm. The same way you and I are making a relatively costless call over the internet with a phone line and a camera. Uh, we’re gonna be doing that, uh, in the financial world. I see that coming and I wanna be a part of it.
Yeah, us as well. Yeah, well put. Um, you know, when we take, take a look at Bitcoin, it’s, you know, deflationary properties and, you know, it’s, uh, it, its potential to preserve, you know, value over time.
Uh, and you referenced it, you know, Bitcoin is like a, a digital gold or do you see it evolving into something even beyond that?
This is the, this is the question I get in trouble with Sailor. Right? So Michael Sailor wrote my forward. Mm. And so, uh, I think that’s impressive.
By the way that Sailor actually did write the,
let me just look, let me just look to the ceiling. I just wanna make sure there’s not a Michael Sailor Predator drone over my head.
That’s gonna fire a rocket at me. Hold on. Let look up. Okay. So because if Sailor was on this call mm-hmm. He would bitch slap you and me and say that this is digital property and this is the operating software for the future. And this is, uh, this is the money of the future. The, the Saada ammo speech about the Bitcoin standard.
Mm-hmm. I don’t say that and Michael gets mad at me. I say this is digital gold, that this will be a store of value, uh, very similar to gold. And so Gold has an $18 trillion market cap. Bitcoin’s 1.8 trillion. I think it could go 10 x where it is today. Now, if Sailor is right, I. Then maybe we’re going to 10 million a coin.
Mm-hmm. If I am right, we’re going to eight, 900,000 a million dollars a coin. Okay. And again, I’m not saying it won’t move like gold moves after that, but I think it gets there over the next five or 10 years and I wanna be there for it. This is one of the best investments that I’ve observed in my career, and I wanna be there for it.
Yeah, I makes sense. Uh, US as well. Um, I mean, you said it, you were skeptic of Bitcoin, right? Uh, what was the turning point? What was the I. Turning point for you? The
turning point for me, believe it or not, I was actually in the White House. Okay. And I always tease people, I say, you know, this happened on a Wednesday, David.
I know that. ’cause I was only there for one Wednesday. That’s how I know. Right. But I was, I was meeting with a group of fed officials that were talking about the potentiality to digitize the US dollar over the blockchain. And I was five years removed from my Hal Finney discussion. Hal is now deceased, but Hal Finney, who got the first Bitcoin from the Satoshi Wallet transferred to him, uh, was a big proponent of, it.
May even have been Satoshi Nakamoto, I don’t know, but I mm-hmm. Didn’t understand it. And now there I was five years later and the good Lord was presenting me with the blockchain and the potentiality of the Federal Reserve, digitizing a US dollar. And I said, okay, this is a big, this is not an apple hitting me in the head.
Yeah. This is a asteroid. Mm-hmm. I’ve gotta, I gotta figure this out. I got fired a few days later. I went back to SkyBridge. I, I bought the website, SkyBridge bitcoin.com. I did the homework on it, and I will again be as candid with you as, oh, I, I was scared of it. I was like, oh my God. I’m a traditional institutional investor.
My clients are gonna be really mad at me if I buy this asset. A lot of skeptics about this asset. Warren Buffet hates this asset and I bought the asset. Peter Schiff. Peter Schiff. Yeah. And Peter and I have debated each other many times and Peter Schiff hate that. And I went and bought the asset and I look like a genius.
I. In 2021, I bought the asset. At 12,000, I went to 69,000 and my client said, you’re a genius. Thank you so much. And then in 2022, it went from 69,000 to 12,000. You’re an IBU soul. I’m pulling my money. And I went from genius to IBU soul, and I’m not a genius and I’m not an IBUs. And now it’s about 80 something thousand.
And the people that stayed with me are very, very happy. Uh, and the question is, where is it going from here? And I believe that this asset will trade to 200,000, uh, in the next 12 to 18 months. And you just have to be patient.
Yeah. And I, I think you answered, you know, my next question about, you know, where you see it short term, long term.
I, I think, I think there are some predictions of, you know, one 50 to 200 over the next year, possibly. I mean, it was 20% correction I think recently. I don’t know what we’re at right now, today, this morning. Um, but you know, it, it’s been interesting. I, you mentioned L Fitty, did you see the, um, did you see the video of, uh, uh, Michael Sailor on stage with Scottie Pippen where he said he met Satoshi?
Um, did you see that video? He met him in 1993, he said, and then Sailor was like, yeah, that what I mean, I’ve seen that video like a hundred times and I laugh every time I see it. But, uh, that was an interesting one. Um, okay. Uh, I was gonna ask you about, uh, cbd, cs, but I think you, you know, you kind of covered that.
Um, the, the, I I did wanna ask you, you know, in the time we have left, just about like. XRP and Ripple in the case with the SEC that’s been dragging out? Uh, I’m not sure. I, I don’t even think it’s wrapped up yet because it seems like every, it just keeps getting appealed and it’s dragging out. I’m not sure if it’s dropped yet or what’s happening, it’s just, it’s been going on for years.
But that seems to be kind of a pivotal case. Right. So if, if Ripple ends up winning and, and, uh, being vindicated there, you know, what type of, um, ripple effects, pun intended, do you see for the broader crypto market, particularly in terms of. Regulation and regulatory clarity.
Yeah. Listen, I, I don’t own Ripple.
I like Brad Garlinghouse. I get along with him. Mm-hmm. I think a lot of Bitcoiners don’t like him because he was so anti Bitcoin. Mm-hmm. But I would say to you that, uh. I take a holistic approach to this stuff. If it’s good for Brad Garlinghouse, it’s good for Anthony Scaramucci, and it’s good for Sade and Almos, okay?
Mm-hmm. Uh, you know, Sian is a Bitcoin absolutist. He’s a Bitcoin maximalist.
Mm-hmm.
I have taken more of a, uh, an open-minded approach to this stuff. ’cause I do think things like Solana will be used for tokenization. Um, I don’t really understand the use cases for Ripple, and I’m not against Ripple. I just don’t own any ripple.
But I think that the fact that the SEC and the powers that be from the regulatory bodies are taking a more middle of the road approach with all of these assets, I think is a good sign. I think it was very unfair that the SEC said, okay, we’re gonna sue first. And we’re gonna ask questions later. Excuse me.
Mr. SEC, what are the rules? Well, you know, we don’t really know what the rules are, and you don’t really know what the rules are. So we’re gonna, we’re gonna regulate you by enforcement. We’re gonna sue you, and we’re gonna force discovery so that our examiners can take a look at what you’re doing, and then if there’s something that you’re doing that’s wrong, we’re gonna accuse you of it.
Yeah, where Brian Armstrong, God bless him, he went to the court system and said, excuse me, the regulators owe us definition to the regulations. And the court said, you are right. And they rebuke the SEC. So, you know, the, the, the Armstrongs of the world won this through the, the judiciary and God bless. ’cause it was overly politicized with the Biden administration and then they won it in the election.
The ballot box hate or like Donald Trump. Donald Trump is a very astute political leader. He’s got great political instincts. He’s like, whoa, there’s no anti crypto votes. Mm. But there’s money and there’s votes that are procr. Guess what? I’m procr. How the Democrats allowed that to happen is beyond me, David, because, uh, you know, mark Cuban and I went to the White House Mm.
Put on our knees and begged the Democrats to see. What I’m explaining to you and your viewers and listeners right now, and the Democrats said, no, we’re gonna be anti crypto and Elizabeth Warren, we’re gonna have an anti crypto army. And it turned out there were no votes for that. No, none whatsoever. They lost the house, the Senate, they blew, they blew the guy, uh, Sherrod Brown out of his seat, 18 year veteran of the Senate blew ’em to smithereens the crypto brothers, they put $40 million into that race.
Hey dummies, wake up. You know, let’s have moderate policies.
Yeah. It’s such an incredible industry. I, you know, I’m really looking forward to, uh, the next few years in this space. Uh, it’s gonna be fun. I think, you know, um, um, in the wrap up, I, I don’t think we had a chance to, you know, um, ask you about this.
You know, we have a successful entrepreneur on a, you know, CEO, uh, leader. We like to talk about, you know, some takeaways for others. You know, we talked about leadership. What are some key qualities of effective leadership? Like what makes a good leader to you? Listening,
being a servant leader. You know, nobody works for Anthony Scaramucci.
People work with Anthony Scaramucci. If you’re on my team, what do you need? How can I help you? Mm-hmm. Uh, delegating, uh, creating a lot of autonomy in a situation. Uh, here’s the job. Uh, you do the job. Uh, if something screws up, I’ll shoulder the blame. Uh, you know, we’ll allow you, give you some freedom to make some mistakes.
You know, I’m gonna pat myself on the back for a minute and please, I’m gonna apologize, but I am able to do two podcasts, talk to you, write a book. I’m writing a book right now about Solana. I’m able to do some public speaking. I’m able to do some world traveling, and I’m able to run SkyBridge and our conference business, so nobody can do all that.
Okay. But I’m able to do that because I’ve empowered a lot of super smart people inside that room that are doing jobs that people think I’m doing. I always tease my podcast producer. I say, you know, you do all the work. I take all the credit. Mm-hmm. And so a good leader, I’m not saying I’m a good leader or a bad leader.
I mean, some people think I’m a very flawed human being and I accept that, but at least. I have built a company where there’s a lot of stability. There’s people in that company, 10, 20, 30 years company’s about to celebrate a, uh, 20th anniversary. But there, believe it or not, there are people working with me that have worked with me since 1991 when I was at Goldman.
Mm-hmm. And so, you know, my driver was with me for 27 years before he retired. I like. Having stable situation where you’re paying people more than the industry average, but then you’re also asking them to do more than the industry.
Yeah. Delegation is an art, uh, delegation’s an art. Um,
you don’t wanna be a bottleneck, David.
Okay. You know, I have buddies of mine. Every decision’s gotta go through me. Okay. I’m not a bottleneck. I’ve got people calling me saying, you know, I booked this guy for the soil commerce. Okay, great. By the way, we gotta write an op-ed. I put your name to this op-ed. Okay. Did you I didn’t get a chance to read it.
No. Let me read it. Okay, great. You know, I, I, my my point is you gotta let people run okay. And let them make some mistakes without you getting overly pissed off at them.
Yeah, I agree with that. Um, is there a commonality you see among, uh, successful entrepreneurs? Is there one thread through all of them? A certain commonality you see through all of them?
Uh, yeah. Nuts. Nuts. The common thread is that they’re all Looney Tunes, myself included. You are a little Looney Tunes. Okay. I mean, these f**king glasses you’re wearing are f**king fantastic,
but yeah, they’re beautiful. Right? I like it. Yeah. But
it’s a sign of your eccentricity, which I adore. Okay. And, uh, you’re a little nuts.
Mm-hmm. And you’re relentless. That’s it. Yeah. You know, I like it and everybody’s a little nuts and, but there’s an X factor, right? Mm-hmm. Simon Goo would tell you, David Morell is going to eat through the wallboard to make his company successful.
That is true. This is true. Do
he’s Whatever’s gonna happen to David Wall.
You wanna fire me from the White House? You wanna take Bitcoin from 69 to 12,000? You wanna wipe out half my, uh, assets during CO. Okay. Okay. No problem. I’m standing. Let’s get to work. Mm. That’s David Morell and that’s, that’s me. And that’s what you need to be to be an entrepreneur.
I agree with that, and, and that is true.
Well said. Okay. Uh, as I said, you, I’ve said this a number of times, you’re one of the busiest people I know you just, you laid out your, uh, you know, your calendar there. What’s next for you? What are you working on? Any, uh, current or future projects you’re excited about? Yeah, I mean, you mentioned another book.
I’m, yeah. I’m writing a Salona book, hopefully to have it out in October. Just talk about the nature, the technical nature of Solana. I have a group of people helping me write it. So it’s not just me writing it, I’m providing research and context. Mm-hmm. And, uh, I’ll be, uh, I’ll be in Europe. Uh, I’m doing, uh, a lot of podcasting.
I’m speaking at a few, um, places in Europe. And then, uh, I’m running SkyBridge. We have a SALT conference coming up in Bermuda in May. And then we have a blockchain conference coming up in Wyoming in, uh, August. And, uh, that’s it. That’s my life, my man.
That’s so cool. That’s so cool. Doing what you love. You know, I, I listen when I hear
that David Morrell wants me on a podcast, I tell my assistant clear,
clear my schedule.
That didn’t happen for the listeners. We had to beg it, beg to make it happen. Um, where do you want the people to find you, follow you, all that type of stuff? I’m, I mean, we, I’m
at Scaramucci on Instagram, at scaramucci on Twitter and threads. Mm-hmm. And, uh, the way you can find me is just, uh, Google my name, uh, jump on my YouTube.
If you really want to help me out, subscribe to my YouTube channel. Yep. It just crossed a hundred thousand subscribers. Make me look good. Make me look good to my young children. How does Daddy have a hundred thousand YouTube subscribers? Go to YouTube. Anthony Scaramucci, please subscribe, David. Yep. Make me look, we’ll make sure.
We’ll put,
we’ll blast it out there. Uh, always a pleasure. Thank you Anthony, so much for Alright. God bless, man. Joining us today. Real pleasure as always. Thank you so much. All the best.
