Anthony Scaramucci “Invests” In Ex-FTX US Chief’s New Crypto Startup
Anthony Scaramucci revealed that he is investing or has invested in a crypto startup founded by Brett Harrison, the former president of the bankrupt exchange FTX US.
While no details have been disclosed on the nature of this investment, the Skybridge Capital founder said in an email to Bloomberg that he will be using his own money “to show support” for Harrison.
The ex-White House Communications Director under former US President Donald Trump (who only held the role for ten days) revealed the move in a reply tweet to Harrison’s thread about his experience at FTX US.
“Brett I am proud to be an investor in your new company. Go forward. Don’t look back. Wishing you the best,” Scaramucci wrote.
Harrison was looking for capital for a crypto software company with fund raising targeted as high as $10 million for a $100 million valuation, Bloomberg reported in December. The proposed venture was for software that crypto traders could use to build algorithms for their strategies and access different sorts of crypto markets, both centralized and decentralized.
The former FTX US head was with the company for around 17 months before leaving in September. Prior to that, he worked at Citadel Securities and Jane Street, both of which he co-founded with Bankman-Fried.
FTX Ventures, Bankman-Fried’s former venture capital arm, stated in September that it had taken a 30% position in Scaramucci’s Skybridge Capital and that the firms would increase their collaboration on venture and digital asset financing. Scaramucci said SkyBridge would attempt to repurchase that interest when FTX went bankrupt — and he subsequently said he’d done some checks on Bankman-Fried before the acquisition, but it wasn’t “enough.”
Maybe it’s not only Scaramucci’s shoes of which Kevin O’Leary–Bankman-Fried’s unofficial advocate–would be jealous.
Harrison: “FTX US hadn’t felt like the dream job it appeared”
Alongside the news on the investment, Harrison also broke his silence about his departure from FTX US. In a twitter thread, the former FTX president said his relationship with Bankman-Fried and his deputies, “had reached a point of total deterioration, after months of disputes over management practices at FTX.”
“When my resignation was made public, those unfamiliar with my plans were surprised, and some questioned whether I’d been fired. It seemed as though I’d left a dream job abruptly after a very short tenure,” Harrison wrote. “The truth was that FTX US hadn’t felt to me like the dream job it appeared to the industry and media for some time, and my departure was not abrupt.”
When Harrison first started at the company, he said his first few months “were wonderful.”
“I made plans with the LedgerX team, built out legal, compliance, and operations departments with first-in-class lateral hires, and began setting up and building a US-regulated retail stock brokerage,” he said.
The judge overseeing the FTX bankruptcy proceedings has authorized the crypto exchange to sell some of its assets, including the derivatives exchange LedgerX, in order to repay creditors.
However, Harrison also said that from the start, he noticed that “while Sam was rarely engaged on the US business, decisions impacting the US would come, without warning, from the Bahamas.”
“I saw in that early conflict his total insecurity and intransigence when his decisions were questioned, his spitefulness, and the volatility of his temperament,” he noted. “I realized he wasn’t who I remembered.”
He added that FTX US was staffed with skilled individuals from financial institutions, law firms, and regulated exchanges in the United States–and their “collective experience and professional acumen were frequently treated as though they were irrelevant and valueless” by Bankman-Fried.
In April 2022, Harrison wrote a formal complaint on what he thought “to be the largest organizational problems inhibiting FTX’s future success,” adding he would resign if these weren’t addressed.
“In response, I was threatened on Sam’s behalf that I would be fired and that Sam would destroy my professional reputation. I was instructed to formally retract what I’d written and to deliver an apology to Sam that had been drafted for me,” he said.
Harrison then stepped down in September, saying “an abrupt departure would be harmful to the company.”
“It’s clear from what has been made public that the scheme was held closely by Sam and his inner circle at FTX. com and Alameda, which I was not a part of, nor were other executives at FTX US,” he reiterated.
Despite this, the FTX debacle would haunt him, with potential investors distancing from his project on the account of a negative PR risk.
“The last few months have provided me with a valuable character study of the industry. Some treated me like an entirely different person overnight, some immediately offered sympathy and support,” Harrison lamented. “It will be a difficult experience to forget.”
Harrison is the latest in the list of former FTX executives speaking out about Bankman-Fried and the manner that he ran the defunct crypto exchange.
Asked by Bloomberg for a comment on Harrison’s thread, Bankman-Fried said the former FTX US president “was a great developer and deeply understood FTX’s product.”
“While I strongly disagree with much of what he said, I have no desire to get into a public argument with him, nor do I feel like it’s my place to litigate his job performance in public, unless he were to authorize me to do so,” Bankman-Fried said. “I feel bad about what happened to all of FTX’s employees, and wish him the best.”
Information for this briefing was found via Bloomberg, Decrypt, and the sources mentioned. The author has no securities or affiliations related to this organization. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.
