SkyBridge Capital founder calls Bitcoin crypto’s ‘Apex Predator,’ defends drop

Bitcoin is still the cryptocurrency to own even as it struggles in recent weeks while altcoins surge, said Anthony Scaramucci, founder of SkyBridge Capital.

“As an investment adviser and someone who’s been running money for 30-plus years, it’s responsible of me to tell my clients to own 1%, 2% or 3%,” Scaramucci, who’s also known for a very brief stint as the White House communications director under former President Donald Trump, said in an interview. “I’m not telling them you’ve got to own 100% of your net worth in it -- but if we’re right, you don’t want to be missing out on this.”

Still, Bitcoin has struggled in recent weeks. After hitting a record of nearly $65,000 in mid-April, it recently traded around $50,000. It also trailed behind rivals, rising about 70% year-to-date compared with Ether’s fivefold gain. The digital currency also lost momentum after Tesla Inc. founder Elon Musk said the electric-car maker stopped taking payments in Bitcoin.

Scaramucci, who’s known for a whirlwind 10-day stint in the White House role, remained a strong proponent of Bitcoin. He’s becoming vocal at a time when institutions and wealthy investors are getting more interested in cryptocurrency due to massive price gains and as the space matures. Bitcoin is currently about 40% of crypto market value, down from around 70% at the start of the year.

Even with growing prominence of altcoins, Bitcoin has been able to “maintain its supremacy as the apex predator in digital currency,” he said.

Scaramucci isn’t alone. On Friday, Square Inc. and Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey said in a tweet that “Bitcoin changes *everything*… for the better. And we will forever work to make bitcoin better.”

Dorsey was responding to a tweet from Square’s Chief Financial Officer Amrita Ahuja, who said the financial payments company’s Bitcoin strategy hasn’t changed and “we’re deeply committed to this community, including working towards a greener future through our Bitcoin Clean Energy Initiative.”

Dorsey later followed up with another tweet about Bitcoin, saying that “no single person (or institution) will be able to change it, or stop it.”

Ether, the second-biggest cryptocurrency, is also “in the process of achieving escape velocity now,” Scaramucci said, given the upgrades that are going on to improve the network. But, he also worries it could be like AOL -- the big thing for a couple of decades before being surpassed by something else with better smart-contract technology.

Dogecoin -- now the fourth-biggest crypto that’s soared in the past year -- is becoming the center of attention this week after Musk, its biggest booster, put a spotlight on the digital currency when he hosted “Saturday Night Live” last weekend. It has also drawn the support of billionaire Mark Cuban. While it’s possible the cryptocurrency that’s started as a joke in 2013 could become a competitive store of value, particularly with Musk using it in a satellite deal, Scaramucci said Dogecoin is too far off the scale for most of his clients.

“Maybe it’ll be silver to Bitcoin’s gold,” he said. “This is happening. This is upon us right now -- you either get it or you don’t get it.”