Democrats Have Made a ‘Horrific Mistake’ on Crypto, Says SkyBridge Capital’s Anthony Scaramucci

Scaramucci said Democrats’ failure to enact cryptocurrency legislation is hurting the party’s chances in the upcoming presidential election.

Despite supporting Trump’s stance on crypto, Scaramucci will not be voting for the former president in November.

Donald Trump’s former communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, may be Trump’s most criticized name.

The Skybridge Capital founder and CEO, who served less than a week under the former president’s administration in 2017, will not be voting for the Republican presidential candidate this November, despite the fact that they agree on at least one policy issue: the need to enact clear crypto legislation.

Scaramucci said Democrats’ failure to do this hurt them and that he continued to support the party despite this.

“The Democrats made a terrible mistake,” he said in an interview with CoinDesk’s Jennifer Sanasie. “They could have been neutral or positive on crypto. And I think that would have helped them in the election.”

Scaramucci is also no fan of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler, despite the fact that he “oddly helped the industry” by delaying the decision to allow spot bitcoin {{BTC}} exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to launch until the cryptocurrency had rebounded after a turbulent year.

“I want Gary Gensler fired,” he said, arguing that the antipathy between Gensler and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was “an incredible disaster” for the crypto industry.

As for Trump, he says the former president isn’t just talking about cryptocurrency.

If Trump is re-elected in November — as investors on crypto-based prediction market platform Polymarket put the probability at 70% — Scaramucci said the new administration would create a supportive environment for the cryptocurrency industry.

“They’re going to put in place an SEC commissioner who is pro-SEC, pro-crypto, pro-digital asset,” he said. “All of these debates about what is a security and what is a token and all of those things are going to be put to the side.”

Trump emerged as a “pro-crypto presidential candidate” earlier this year when he reiterated his view that central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) would pose a threat to freedom and that he would not allow such a product to be created.

He started accepting donations in cryptocurrency and said he would “build a crypto army” to fight against the “anti-crypto army,” referring to Warren.

On Monday, he announced that he had chosen Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), who is considered crypto-friendly, as his running mate.

Scaramucci said he was pleased with Trump’s support for crypto, but that he was not a “single-issue” voter.

“I see myself as someone with Trump reality syndrome. I see the man for who he is. I see the lack of intellectual curiosity. I see the danger to democracy. I see these think tanks that are working with him and want to build his transition into the first few years of his presidency as dystopian.”