Trump's new meme coin is part of his 'whole enchilada' and will hurt crypto's progress, Anthony Scaramucci says
WEF
- Donald Trump's rollout of a meme coin has sparked uproar even among crypto leaders.
- Anthony Scaramucci said in Davos that it's part of the "whole enchilada" of voting Trump into power.
- Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong welcomed Trump and backed creating a US strategic bitcoin reserve.
Donald Trump's launch of the $Trump meme coin has sparked outrage even among crypto fans — but Anthony Scaramucci isn't too surprised by the move.
"When you vote for Donald Trump, you get the whole thing," Scaramucci said Tuesday at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. The founder and CEO of the crypto-friendly asset manager SkyBridge briefly served as the president's White House communications director in his first term.
Trump's decision to release a coin that's 80% owned by groups tied to him "could alarm some people," Scaramucci said on a crypto panel moderated by Business Insider's Spriha Srivastava.
However, others who understand his personality see the controversial release as part of "getting the whole enchilada of Donald Trump," he added.
Scaramucci said $Trump — now worth billions — "hurts the industry" because it will vex older politicians and lawmakers and probably "slow down" the regulatory process.
The Wall Street veteran laid out in a recent X post why he's concerned about Trump's coin: "Now anyone in world can essentially deposit money into bank account of President of USA with a couple clicks. Every favor — geopolitical, corporate or personal — is now on sale, right out in the open."
Rules and reserves
The crypto insiders on the Davos panel welcomed Trump's reelection.
"It's the dawn of a new day," said Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, the leading crypto exchange in the US. The Biden administration oversaw a "very hostile environment" for crypto, he added, where officials "tried to curtail or kill the industry unlawfully."
Bitcoin, the most popular token, crossed $109,000 for the first time this week. Armstrong credited the rise to excitement over Trump's pledges to be the first "crypto president" and order government agencies to support the industry, which has battled regulators for years.
Armstrong also backed the idea of a strategic bitcoin reserve for the US, hailing the crypto as "digital gold" that's becoming less volatile and still has plenty of "upside potential." He added that a reserve "could be a huge driver of bitcoin price appreciation."
However, Lesetja Kganyago, the governor of the South African Reserve Bank, questioned why governments should stockpile bitcoin instead of something else, like beef, mutton, or apples.
Armstrong responded by saying bitcoin is superior to gold — which many governments hold — in terms of utility. Bitcoin fans often say it serves as a store of value, a means of exchange, an inflation hedge, and an appreciating asset because of rising demand and a fixed supply.
Separately, Armstrong said crypto needed to become simpler and easier to use to achieve mass adoption: "Most people don't understand how electricity works, but they can flip on a light switch — we need to make it that simple."