Scaramucci’s SkyBridge bought $10mn of FTX token in return for investment

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried told Anthony Scaramucci to buy digital tokens created by his cryptocurrency exchange as a condition for him taking a 30 per cent stake in SkyBridge Capital, in an early sign he was trying to support the coin’s price, according to three people with knowledge of the agreement.

The Scaramucci-led fund manager SkyBridge bought $10mn worth of FTT, the token issued by FTX, two of the people said.

The bankruptcy of FTX after a liquidity crisis in the past week has rocked the cryptocurrency industry, sparking investigations by global regulators and leaving behind as many as 1mn creditors.

Until recently Bankman-Fried was viewed as a billionaire backer of the crypto industry. He also came to the rescue of SkyBridge, which has over the past two years invested heavily in crypto under Scaramucci’s leadership.

The deal Bankman-Fried and Scaramucci announced in September involved FTX Ventures paying $45mn for a 30 per cent stake in SkyBridge. Under the terms of the agreement, SkyBridge was obliged to spend $40mn buying cryptocurrencies.

Scaramucci at the time said the transaction was proof that SkyBridge had a long-term future. “If you have $50mn in liquid assets on your balance sheet, people don’t think you’re going out of business,” he told reporters in September at his Salt financial conference in New York.

Now Scaramucci is looking for ways to buy back FTX’s stake in his firm even as Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire goes through bankruptcy proceedings, he recently told CNBC.

Scaramucci and SkyBridge declined to comment on Wednesday. Bankman-Fried did not return a request for comment.

FTT assumed a crucial role in the financial crisis that engulfed FTX after a document leaked to the crypto publication CoinDesk showed that Alameda Research, a sister trading firm also owned by Bankman-Fried, held large amounts of the token on its balance sheet, raising concerns about its financial health.

Anxiety increased after Changpeng Zhao, the chief executive of rival crypto exchange Binance, earlier this month said it would sell the roughly $600mn in FTT it had received as part of its exit from an early equity investment in FTX. The move threatened to knock down FTT’s price.

Scaramucci speculated during an interview at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum on Tuesday that Binance’s decision to sell FTT was prompted by negative comments Bankman-Fried had made about Zhao during a recent trip to the Middle East.

The FTT token is not widely traded. Just 10 crypto wallets control 94 per cent of the coins’ supply, according to CoinMarketCap. As the token’s price came under pressure earlier last week, Alameda stepped in to buy FTT and defend it, according to analysts at crypto research firm Kaiko.

FTT finally collapsed on Tuesday last week as FTX staggered from customer withdrawals and a liquidity crisis. The token now trades below $2, compared to more than $26 at the beginning of November.

SkyBridge started out almost two decades ago as a fund of hedge funds business that gave wealthy clients access to some of the most well-known investment managers in the industry. Scaramucci, who had a brief stint as the White House communications director under former president Donald Trump, tried to sell the business to China’s HNA Group but the deal was scuppered by the Trump administration.