SkyBridge's Scaramucci On Why He Launched A Bitcoin Fund

and on Bloomberg dot com. Taking a look at x BT on my Bloomberg terminal, Bitcoin thirty four at ninety dollars, up four point seven percent today, up five hundred and fifty percent off of its March low, leading some folks to speculate whether this is this move is real or if it's suspective of BUBBLEO. Next guest has a firm opinion on that. Anthony Scarmucci, founder and co managing partner of Skybridge Capital, joins this here. Anthony, thanks so much

for joining us here. You guys at Skybridge launching a bitcoin fund. Tell us about that. Well, first of all, great to be honest. I I you know, we've done a tunnel research on bitcoin. After my disaster or fiasco in the White House, I returned back to my own firm and it took about three years for us to get comfortable frankly with bitcoin. But there are three things

in place right now that I think are quite meaningful. Regulation, as you can see the December twenty three regulation or yesterday's decision by the control or currency to allow these stable coins to go through the system. UH. Secondarily, the architecture is in place now to store the stuff easily uh in an unhackable space. As an example, the Skybridge Bitcoin fund is using fidelity digital assets, and so that

is a major upgrade to anything that was existing prior. UH. And the third reason, I think this is the most compelling reason bitcoin is one. If you take a look at crypto assets or digital forms of storage of value, Bitcoin at five and fifty billion dollars now has beaten the competitors. It was probably hit were attacked sixty hundred times uh since its inception twelve years ago. UH. And here we are now with an encrypted technology which is

effectively a ledger. And as you and I both know when you study the history of money, that's all money really is. It's a ledger. UH. It's defended by tens of millions of people that are supporting the system. As an example, Skybridge as an active technological node attached to the bitcoin ecosphere. Uh and, so for us, we're very confident.

I'm obviously got a great relationship with Michael Sailor and uh Tyler and Camberrall, Cameron Winklevoss, and I worked with Mike Novigrads closely at Goldman Sacks years ago, and while it took us a long time to make the decision, we came in in a very big way for Skybridge. We put twenty five million dollars at the firm's capital into the Skybridge Bitcoin Fund, and we now have over

three million dollars a bitcoin across our platform. Uh And I would encourage people to go to Skybridge bitcoin dot com to see all of the research, the white paper and the analysis that we've done as to why we see bitcoin becoming a digital form of gold um in

the ensuing years and why it will be volatile. I have no doubt about that, but I think it's ascendency is real and I expected to be closing in on gold over the next ten to fifteen years, having a five five billion dollar market gap gold of course having a ten trillion dollar one five billion dollars. So, Anthony, who are the people that have come in post the Skybridge in influx of funds into the fund, are the

institutional investors or retail investors. Well, it's certainly open to institutions, but I we've Skybridge has made its way predominantly what I would call the mass affluent at those would be accredited or qualified investors. And just to take you back thirty seconds on the history of Skybridge, we democratize the hedge fund space by having a fifty dollar minimum on our fund of funds, and so you could get access to hedge funds that way. We've done the same thing

here with the bitcoin fund. It's a fifty thollar minimum. You've got to be a qualified investor to got to buy you a whole if if you're just to put that straight into bitcoin, it would buy you a whole coin and a bit. That's correct. That's that's correct. It's probably buying you about one point eight coins right now. They're about But listen, you know, I want this to

be a buy and hold strategy for investors. The fund has a three year i'm sorry, a three month lock up, but we're also charging only seventy five basis points, and so if you compare it to something like Gray Scale, which is charging two and of course if you want to come into Gray Scales product, you have to pay that premium because it's trading on the pink sheets at a premium to where the underlying asset is actually trading,

and so and so. In the Skybridge situation, we're trying to make this a the vest or friendly as possible. You can come directly into the fund, you own the bitcoin itself, it's stored up at Fidelity, and you have all those safety mechanisms associated with our fund management. I think I think if we've talked a lot of folks on on bitcoin, and I think if I could boil it down to the simplest of bull cases, limited supply and presumably growing demand, is that the fundamental bull case

for you guys. Well, I think it's a technology as well. So I would say limited supply growing demand because people recognize that fiat currency has been damaged by the central banking system through their coordination to try to stave off these boom and bus cycles. Um and I think you just an example increase in the US dollar money supply

in the last six months. So so it's a combination of macro forces, UH, scarcity and the acceptability of that digital ledger, uh, the notion that that ledger is impregnable through the through the block chain. So if you take all those things, you study the history of money, and you study the evolution of where we are right now. Bitcoined is portable, it's easier to store than gold. Uh and the result of which, if you really understand human beings,

all we have is a ledger between each other. And so now this has become an acceptable form of that, and the result of which I think it's going to uh uh, it's going to replace gold ultimately. For you know, for my children, my adult children that are in their mid twenties, they see it as a better version of gold. Anthony, we're pretty much out of time, but talk to us just for a moment about Skybridge and the relationship with China.

Is there going to be you know, any kind of partnership with any Chinese firms in the future or whatever happened to post the h n A episode, So you know, Siphius block that deal. The the federal government made a decision and again it wasn't personal the Skybridge. I think it was more uh centric to the Chinese US relationship.

Result of which we disbanded that deal. We were thinking about doing a joint venture, and then because of what's going on between the United States and China at this moment, it wasn't practical. So there's nothing in the near future. Uh, you know, But I'm a long term oriented person. I do believe that the United States needs to have a very strong bilateral relationship with China, and notwithstanding our differences, and so who who Who's to say that we couldn't

have a Skybridge salt conference in Beijing or Shanghai someday. Well, I want to be open minded to that. Speaking of which, those salt talks continuing all the time. They're virtual talks now and anyone can can get in. And unfortunately we're on the area during some of them, so aren't tables listen to all of them. But Anthony, thank you very much for joining today. Congratulations on the launch of Skybridges new Skybridge Bitcoin fund. Anthony Scarlucci, found of Skybridge Capital.

Bitcoin trading about thirty dollars thirty tho dollars at the moment, but JPM working talking about it going to one six thousand dollars and that's just in a note today. So fascinating conversations around bitcoin. But I know there's one question that I deeply, deeply want to know from you, Paul, and that is, what did you watch on New Year's Day or New Year's Eve? And wasn't Wonder Woman? It was not. It was probably sports pretty much across the board.

But I think people are consuming movies Vannie so much differently post pandemic than that we were just you know, several months ago. Okay, but I'm just going to push a little further. Did you watch or even attempt to watch Wonder Woman? Did not? All? Right? Well I did. I must say this, This idea that it was on HBO Max, meaning that you didn't have to go to the theater. It reeled me in, I have to say, And I tried to watch. I didn't make it all

the way through, which is unusual. But nevertheless it did make me go back and watch Wonder Woman one. And essentially what I'm trying to say is that given that it was easier just to sit at home and watch it than you know, that meant that I watched at home and I didn't go out to the movie theater.

And the movie theater business has been in shocking state, really just suffering the slings and arrows of this outrageous pandemic over the last twelve months all around the world, and we've seen as many of the talks, and of

course our next guests had to suffer that too, Pole. Yeah, absolutely, I mean, I think that the theater business has been just so hit so hard, Vonnie, because two reasons obviously, stay at home, the quarantines, and then number two, uh, there's just much, much, much less content in the theaters as we see the studios really releasing even their A list blockbuster content direct to consumers on their streaming services, as companies like Disney, the the biggest studio in Hollywood,

really pivoting the company itself uh to uh streaming, and even you know, stunts like Tom Cruise going to the movie theater in public filmed cannot bring people back to the theater if there's a lockdown happening, which right now is the case in London and in Germany and in some places in the United States. So let's bring in the person who has been really trying to weather this for IMAX. He is the CEO of IMAX, and that is Richard Gelfond and Richards, thank you very much for

joining us today. You know it's been it's been a tough tough year in your industry. I wonder if you see any glimmers of hope for your industry right now. Yeah, I do, Bunny, And in fact, we fared better than

almost anyone because, um, we have two reasons. One we have a global footprint rather than North America based, and two because we do blockbuster movies, both of which have managed to do okay during this So first the global part, we're in eighty two countries and particularly in Asia where the theaters have been open for months, generally since September, UM, things have gone quite well. So you look at China, for example, just this past weekend for New Year's it

was the biggest New Year's weekend we ever had. We did a film called shock Wave two, and we were of the Chinese box office on one of the screens. UM. For all of December, UM we were up eight percent, which is also quite impressive. And in the third quarter, UM we were flat till last year, and all that is without Hollywood films. So I'd say it's beyond a glimmer of hope. I think when people feel safe and the films are available, they're going to go back to

the movies. To us, it's not much of a question because we've you know, our our vision as well beyond the shores of North America. So Richard, give us a sense, um in your discussions with the Hollywood studios, Um, to what extent do you think they will revert to the typical windowing if you will, and put most of their you know, A list films with a theatrical window as

opposed to going uh direct to their streaming services. How do you think this is going to play out on the other side, Yeah, I think the way you frame the question, Paul, when you said A list movies, I think virtually all of the A list movies will will still be released theatrically. I think maybe some of the smaller movies won't be, but the economics are just gonna

be overwhelming um to do that. I mean, you look at what Disney announced that their investor Day, and pretty much every blockbuster film, the kinds of films that Imax does they announced were staying theatrical. And whether that was Black Widow or whether it was the other Marvel movies or um, whether it was Jungle Cruise or some of

the Pixar movies, they moved them. And all the other films blockbusters that were scheduled theatrically for this year, including um Baverick, the Tom Cruise, Um sequel to Top Gun, including Um bond Um, all of those have been moved in the year. So I just don't think that's an issue. I think there's a pandemic solution, which is to move some of them to streaming, and I get that it

makes sense. And then there's a post pandemic solution. And as I said earlier in answered the first question, if it's not a pandemic, I think it's going to go back to the way it was. You mentioned Richards, it calls eighty two countries. Have you had to work with the local providers or franchisees or however it works to make the theater is more amenable during a pandemic time. Have you had to separate seating more. Have you had to get rid of you know, the the the merchandise

areas and the consignment areas and so on. Well, we license our technology around the world, so it's up to the operator in each country to comply with local regulation. But of course we've had to be involved in that, and yes, there has been capacity restrictions. So even today in Asia, where I indicated we're doing so well, that's

with se capacity limitations that are still in place. And in North America where the theaters have been open, that's typically been capacity in some cases maybe, and the whole cinema industry has worked on things like requiring mass upgrading ventilation systems, separate entrances, in separate exit to make people feel more comfortable. Right, Hey, Richard, thanks so much for joining us. Really appreciated. Richard Gelfond, CEO of IMAX. Based on a long island, you're giving us his update of

the theater business in a pandemic world. Looking forward to the other side. Let's get now to the outlook for what might happen beyond George's outcome. Gina Martina's chief equity strategist for Bloomberg Intelligence. You know, you obviously came out with a look ahead for the whole year right before the end of last year. But I'm curious as to just in a very short term, how are investors positioned

for today's Senate runoffs. Yeah, I think in general, as investors have ignored the idea that we could still have a blue wave impact hang Washington. I think we tried to price in a blue wave prior to the election. We then priced it out. Um. Now investors are kind of grappling with this idea that, oh, maybe we will end up having a blue wave, and what does that mean?

What does it mean in particular for tech stocks and multinationals is the really big question because it doesn't necessarily need to alter the overall direction of the equity market. But if we do have a blue wave wash over Washington, we most likely will have a little bit of an alteration of sort of sector thematic maybe even style performance

going forward. Yeah, I mean, if that's the case, you know, I mean, is there going to be an obvious change in sort of the overall indices beyond tomorrow if if

the market gets a result it doesn't expect. Well, if we do have a blue wave, the biggest, most obvious change is that we will likely see fiscal policy paid for through corporate text rate increase, and most likely a lot of that corporate textr rate increase will fall on the shoulders of multinational companies, in particular large cap tech companies. So what I would expect to see if we do see um both seats go to the Democrats, which, by

the way, I don't think we'll know tomorrow. I think it's going to be an extended period of counting votes once again, and we're going to have to sort of

price this in over a period of time. But if it does look like both seats go to the Democratic candidates and the Senate shifts to Democratic majority, in that case, we most likely will see corporate tax reform, and the result of that is going to be probably a loss of significant momentum for big cap tex s docs, which had a pretty significant comeback in the month of December, really erasing a lot of the weakness that had emerged

rior to the election. Will the market be quite confident that if the two seats go Democrat that the Biden administration will be able to enact whatever legislation it decides. I mean, even if both seats go Democrat, it will be a pretty pretty sliver thin the majority. Yeah, And as a result of that is most likely we get a bigger fiscal spending package than we had priced in. Most likely we get some form of corporate tax reform. Um most likely you see a move toward alternative energy

sources of funded at the federal level. It just increases the likelihood. It doesn't necessarily mean we price in everything on the Biden agenda, UM, but it certainly gives it a better possibility of happening or an increased probability of happening, which was not in the market consensus as of December, Gina, Given that it's going to be a Biden administration, will the the the political headlines have you know less of an impact on this market than did the Trump presidency,

would you imagine? I suspect so. I think the big shift that we're talking less about, but we probably should be talking more about, is what's happened what's likely to happen with trade and with the dollar. I think one of the things that was sort of under appreciated in the environment of volatility that we had was how much the dollar strength contributed to asset allocation and equity market performance globally, as well as equity market performance even in

the United States. UM the result of more visible or clearer trade policy. Less uncertainty with respect to trade probably is one of the key contributors to the dollar's recent turnover. As investors are more ristolerant. They see a more visible environment, more predictable environment for trade. That's starting to impact asset allocation globally, benefiting emerging market stocks over US docks is a good example, UM that dollar weakness has also emerged,

improving risk taking globally. The dollar strengthens obviously an environment of fear and environment of risk taking, the dollar gets the flight to quality benefit that tends to benefit large cap stocks in the US over small caps. We're seeing a reversal of that trade as well. So I do

think that there are quite a bit of opportunity. It's quite a bit of an opportunity for the dollar to continue to drop as we see some of that risk intolerance that emerged in the last two years of the Trump administration get reversed and Gina, we're pretty much out of time. But Janet Yellen as Treasury secretary, is that going to make a material difference to these markets? I think it did. You know, we obviously saw once the announcement came in UM several weeks back, we saw the

markets put in a bit of a relief rally. You know, she's a steady hand. It was very clear that she was a steady hand at the Fed. We have another steady hand assured now at the Treasury. As a result, we'll see what the policy shift looks like as a result of a yellow treasury um. I don't know that that's terribly predictable. Are we going to see a massive policy shift or not? But I do think the markets are seized by the certainty of having that steady hand

at the helm. Alright, Gina, thank you and halping you r Gina mart Now, I'm chief equity strategist for Bloomberg Intelligence w G. I growed so just below fifty dollars a barrel bots in the last couple of hours we did have at top fifty dollars a barrel for the first time in months and months and months, And now, according to a delegate, we have an opaque plus deal on February output at least no better time to bring in Stephen Short, President of the Short Group and editor

of the Short Groupport. Stephen, you have been following the headlines all morning, but we have officially now from a delegate the word that Saudi Arabia will voluntarily cut output, Russia and Kazakhstan will increase output at least for the month of February. Was this always a done deal? Well, I think certainly. The prospects of a production increase we're certainly limited. So the fact that the Saudis are kicking in so we'll have a net zero sum for February

does I think fall within expectations. The market has been moving up on these moves over the past well, in the past half of December. We did sell off smartly yesterday when it looked like we were going to get a production increase. That has gone by the wayside now and the markets correct and higher. To your point, w t I now is touched fifty dollars a barrel. Let's keep in mind there's nothing magical about fifty dollars a barrel other than the fact that it's got a five

in its handle. It's just a psychological number. That said, we're still at levels that we are well below a year ago at this point. So effectively, we've had a nice rally of rebound in the fourth quarter, but we're no better off today than where we are at the back of the start of this well the start of last year, I should say. Another headline crossing the Bloomberg terminal UH. As it relates to energy, the farm sout a foreign minister says Arab states to fully restore UH

cutter ties. So some more news out of the Mid East. We'll have more on that coming up, uh, Stephen. It kind of brings us back to the demand picture. We're seeing, uh the UK enter into another lockdown here. What's the view of the the energy marketplace, the oil marketplace on kind of the demand picture over the next call it six or twelve months. Yeah, absolutely, We're we've now entered a new era of oil demand, the elasticities demand or

in the process of changing forever. That of course is related to the introduction of substitute into the market electric vehicles. We also have the introduction of a variable that was on no one's radar a year ago, and that is the change in dynamics in commuters. We're still a good portion of us are still working from our homes. When we do get back to some sort of semblance of normalcy, many computer commuters are are not going back. They're going

to continue to work from home. So it's completely changing dynamics with regard to the introduction of something other than gasoline, and are changing appetite for gasoline. So demand clearly will on a year year basis improve, that's just a function of how poor demand was over the past year. But clearly we're looking at a change in dynamic where demand

is going to be muted for the foreseeable future. Saudi clearly, you know, had to be the one to cut out put in order for the likes of Russia and Kazakhstan to boost out. But a little bit. How much will this put a dent in Saudi resources for the foreseeable future? Steven is is it a nasty setback for them? Actually? You know, I think Saudi has already been more market

share oriented as opposed to price level oriented. So what the Saudis are doing is clearly we're looking at Look, oil is not going away any time and in anyone's lifetime on this call. But that said, the market share is going to continue to dwindle society. Radia is protecting its share in the global market. Uh So it's taking

a short term hit for longer term preservation. Stephen, what have we seen from the US producers, you know, over the last several months and what's the expectation for them as we think about supply Well, producers last summer, I did a yeoman's job in cutting production. Uh. Clearly this had to be done. With the market signals, Uh, we're starting to see a rebound in a a stabilization in production. At around eleven million barrels a day, we're looked to

hold steady at this point from a pricing standpoint. When we were back at the worst of it, we were below thirty dollars a barrel. That wasn't even enough to keep the current rigs producing rigs online. Now that w t I is in that mid mid to high forty dollar range, we're clearly looking at a stabilization and production. We will not see any new production from the U S producer unless he gets sustained prices w t I prices in that mid the high fifty dollar range, I'm

a little skeptical we can get that high. But from a US production standpoint, they've been able to weather the worst of it at this point. You know, with the oil price now in that fifty dollar range, that's more in the reelhouse. Of course, the current rusk at this point now is a second wave of lockdowns which will exacerbate demand decay. And let's not lose sight of the

fact that Iran is now back in the headlines. Any sort of easing sanctions with the rant with the new administration will allow a raining and by an extent, Venezuelan oil to be reintroduced to the market, adding more supply to the market. And clearly this is something that is on the radar of Saudi Arabia and hence their decision to try and keep supply at a reasonable level as we roll into the new administration here in the US. Hey, Steven,

thanks so much for joining us. A great timing here to get you on to talk a global oil as w t I briefly hits fifty dollars per barrel today. We appreciated Stephen Short, President of the Short Group, editor of the Short Report based in Villanova, Pennsylvania. We appreciate him coming on IVANNI. A big day UH in the energy markets getting you know the saudis to cut production slightly. UM.

That is certainly bullish for the price of global crude oil. UH. The issue will be I think you know what we're hearing from the likes of Steven Short is going to be demand going forward and that will be a key driver. As always, Thanks For listening to the Boomberg Markets podcast, you can subscribe and listen to interviews at Apple Podcasts or whatever podcast platform you prefer. I'm Bonnie Quinn, I'm on Twitter at Bonnie Quinn. And I'm Paul Sweeney. I'm

on Twitter at pt Sweeney. Before the podcast, you can always catch us worldwide at Bloomberg Radio