SkyBridge Capital, an investment firm founded by Anthony Scaramucci, a former White House Communications Director, has revealed it “may seek exposure to digital assets” in a filing note posted last week.
The note, first spotted by Decrypt, saw the firm reveal it “may seek exposure to digital assets,” and clarified that it was referring to the flagship cryptocurrency bitcoin, although not exclusively. The investment firm did not specify whether it has already invested in any digital assets or not, but noted:
Investments by the Company and/or Investment Funds may also be made in companies providing technologies related to digital assets or other emerging technologies .
SkyRidge added it “may invest in Investment Funds that provide access to a particular digital asset or assets without a discretionary investment strategy.” The firm, according to Reuters, manages $7.7 billion in assets and invests “with a handful of hedge funds.”
Scaramucci is said to be one of the hedge fund industry’s best-known executives, and served in the White House as communications director for 11 days back in 2017. He returned to SkyBridge in 2017 after a planned sale to HNA Group, a Chinese conglomerate, fell through.
The firm was reporting heavy losses in March of this year, partly because of its investments in structured credit. Investing in BTC would see SkyBridge join a number of publicly traded and private firms that have added bitcoin to their treasuries.
Publicly traded firms that embraced bitcoin include MicroStrategy, which bought $425 million worth of BTC this year, Square, which invested $50 million into the cryptocurrency, and various BTC mining firms like Hut 8 Mining, Argo Blockchain, and Riot Blockchain.
According to a website tracking these treasuries most BTC investments have paid off so far. MicroStrategies’ $425 million bet on the flagship cryptocurrency saw it buy 38,250 BTC, which are now worth over $640 million. Similarly, Square’s $50 million are now $78 million.
To some analysts these investments were partly responsible for bitcoin’s recent prise rise. CryptoCompare data the price of the flagship cryptocurrency was slightly above $10,500 in early October, and started surging later that month. It’s now trading at $16,750.
Notably, near the end of October PayPal announced the launch of its new service that lets users buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrencies on its platform. The service is for now only available to users in the U.S. and supports BTC, BCH, LTC, and ETH.
PayPal is planning to “expand the features to Venmo and select international markets in the first half of 2021.”
Featured image via Pixabay.
