Anthony Scaramucci, former White House communications director, stated that disgraced crypto executive Sam Bankman-Fried hurt the industry
At the Collision 2023 Panel in Toronto, Anthony Scaramucci, founder of Skybridge Capital and former White House communications director, stated that disgraced crypto executive Sam Bankman-Fried “really hurt the industry in the United States from a regulatory perspective.” Scaramucci added:
“He embarrassed the politicians; he gave a lot of money to them. They spent a lot of time with him, Gary Gensler spent a lot of time with him. And then they had this huge situation that happened. And that was very embarrassing. And so now the pendulum has swung too far to over-regulation in this ridiculous prosecutorial oversight.”
Scaramucci stated, in response to a question about the regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies in Canada versus the United States, that “Canada actually learned from the United States and set it up the way we used to do things in the United States.” He elaborated:
“They went to the industry. They said, ‘Okay, how do we fairly regulate the industry? How do we protect ourselves from bad actors?’ Most of the industry players know one another, and then […] they work alongside their legislators to come up with guidelines.”
Scaramucci continued, “We’re watching the Canadian crypto digital asset space thrive,” Scaramucci, a politician and business magnate, has his sights set on Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, a Canadian, in terms of leading the future of cryptocurrency exchanges in the aftermath of FTX’s demise:
“I’m gonna give him an A on execution and growing Binance. It’s 65ish percent of the overall market. So I’ll give him an A on that. He probably gets a C+ or B on transparency around it. Maybe in the beginning, they had some things that they did there that were regrettable. But it’s just the SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] that is suing them; we have yet to see anything criminal.”
Scaramucci stated in his concluding remarks that although CZ will continue to receive “a lot of flaming arrows,” he will remain the “most influential person” in crypto. Scaramucci stated, “He does actually have the largest platform, and it’s that one that can gain mass adoption, while still being a legitimate source where they’re gonna continue to operate in all major jurisdictions in the world,
