SkyBridge files for crypto company ETF
SkyBridge, a US-based alternative investment firm, is looking to expand its crypto service offerings, its latest decision being filing for a crypto-focused exchange-traded fund (ETF).
Anthony Scaramucci, SkyBridge founder and former Communications Director for White House, has shared at New York’s SALT conference this week that the firm had raised over $100 million from the new Algorand fund.
At present, SkyBridge holds approximately $700 million worth of crypto assets, he informed.
Skybridge filed for a crypto-focused ETF with the SEC on September 14. If it is approved, the First Trust SkyBridge Crypto Industry, in collaboration with Digital Economy ETF, would invest a maximum of 80 per cent of its net assets in leading companies within the crypto sector ecosystem, without seeking direct exposure to cryptocurrency.
Scaramucci, expressing plans for SkyBridge’s crypto offerings, said that “crypto is here to stay,” stressing the urgency for regulators to act “very quickly” if they were intent on stemming a snowballing effect in the adoption of crypto technology. Adding that there will soon be more than 200 million crypto users in the United States alone, he compared the crypto industry with Uber, suggesting that regulators wanted to deregulate Uber. Still, the company won since “people wanted Uber.”
As crypto analysts anticipate a heavy regulatory crackdown by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Scaramucci’s comments come as an adequate assurance that the crypto markets will expand no matter what.
Scaramucci also expressed disagreement with Gary Gensler, SEC Head, on him calling the crypto sector as being “rife with fraud and abuse.”
Others at the CNBC event, however, did not share Scaramucci’s optimism about the crypto sector to outdo heavy government regulations.
Founder of the third-largest hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, Ray Dalio, also spoke at the event, predicting that the heightening popularity of digital wallets would definitely draw the ire of policymakers in the US. Dalio asserted that the lawmakers “will kill it because they have ways of killing it.”
Despite the negative remarks on regulations, Dalio sounded optimistic about crypto adoption, stating that all options alternatives to cash, including Bitcoin, are “worth considering.”
