FTX acquires 30% stake in Scaramucci’s SkyBridge Capital

Despite the crypto bear market, several companies continue to build and reset. One hot crypto news story this Friday is that crypto exchange FTX has struck yet another deal with a major crypto player, taking a 30% stake in SkyBridge Capital, an investment firm founded by Anthony Scaramucci.

The acquisition, which was confirmed by both Scaramucci and FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, comes on the back of a recent crypto market collapse that flushed with it high profile companies such as crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and Voyager Digital.

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As we reported, market conditions had also forced Scaramucci’s firm to pause withdrawals in one of its smaller funds in July.

FTX continues expansion despite brutal crypto winter.

While SkyBridge Capital said in the press release that FTX’s venture capital arm FTX Ventures would be completing the partial acquisition, both Anthony Scaramucci and Sam Bankman-Fried appeared on CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box’ to explain the move.

According to Bankman-Fried, recently nicknamed the ‘JP Morgan of Crypto’, the 30% stake in SkyBridge Capital isn’t an out of the blue venture. Apparently, the exchange has evaluated the investment firm since last year and has belief that the Scaramucci-led company could be a critical cog in the advancement of cryptocurrency investment and adoption.

The stake is “a first step” to becoming part of the team and helping push this goal, the FTX executive noted.

Scaramucci, whose company turns 18 in March, also confirmed the deal had been sealed. He said in the CNBC interview that his firm has bought $40 million worth of securities as part of the proceeds, which go directly to their balance sheet.

On the question of why an acquisition, the SkyBridge CEO said he approached Bankman-Fried and offered his vision of what a deal would do to the growth of not just the digital asset investment space, but also across traditional assets.

“I think what we are doing in asset management matches the vision Sam has for FTX in terms of its growth,” he explained. In his view, “there’s a lot of synergies there, a lot of relationship opportunities – cross-generational relationship opportunities” that the two companies can share.

SkyBridge and FTX are already collaborating via a multi-year partnership over the sponsorship of the annual SALT conferences, with both leaders expected to highlight the latest deal at this year’s SALT New York on Monday, 12 September.

The companies also co-present the digital asset conference Crypto Bahamas.