Anthony Scaramucci Calls Out Trump's Crypto Endeavors as 'Bad for America'

Americans in crypto are grappling with the pros and cons of President Trump turning America into the crypto capital of the world. And perhaps no one has a right to be more conflicted than Anthony Scaramucci.

In a wide-ranging interview with Coinage, Trump's former White House communications director made clear that while he’s all for Bitcoin adoption, the way President Trump is going about it could wind up doing more harm for America than good.

“According to the watchdogs, he's made $3.4 billion since he started the presidency the second time. I don't know if that's good for the country,” Scaramucci said, citing a New Yorker piece that tallied Trump's business dealings. “I would actually say you say it less passive aggressive and say that's bad for the country.”

As the founder of SkyBridge Capital, Scaramucci has long bet on crypto — and has stayed involved even after a very public falling out with FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried in the wake of the exchange's collapse. He just wrapped up another SALT Blockchain Symposium in Wyoming, where investors and leaders in government spoke on how new rules are boosting crypto. Surely, Trump's election win has lifted the prospects of the Mooch's crypto investments.

But at the same time, Scaramucci called out the inevitable political retribution that may befall crypto if Democrats were to return to power after President Trump finishes leveraging his elected office. Perhaps more worrisome than anything President Trump has his hands in is World Liberty Financial's own stablecoin, or digital dollar, which has been heavily marketed as being inspired by President Trump.

The Trump USD1 stablecoin has been heralded as "the fastest-growing stablecoin in the world" by its co-founders, which include Eric Trump and Don Jr. and Zach Witkoff, the son of Trump's Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff. But if anyone were to dig into why the stablecoin has exploded to a $2.2 billion marketcap, they would see $2 billion of that stems from an investment deal struck by Abu Dhabi firm MGX for a stake in crypto exchange Binance. Since pleading guilty to a money laundering violation in 2024, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao has not exactly been shy about following other crypto founders in the line for a potential Trump pardon.

While Scaramucci acknowledged that Trump's "kids have the right to have businesses,” he caveated the line being drawn at President Trump blurring presidential power with personal profit as unequivocally "bad for America."

"It might make him money, but I don't think it's good for America," Scaramucci said. "We're breaking norms. We want to find political leaders that are... more worried about how they're going to serve the people. You know what a good political leader is, somebody that loves people so much that they are willing to do things for people they're never going to meet."

Regardless of where people fall on the ethical questions being raised as a result of the President's crypto dealings, there is no denying the changes in 2025 have been swift and a complete reversal of the Democrat-led charge to kneecap the crypto industry in America. Beyond Trump himself, his administration has arguably done more via leaders that have been installed at agencies once combative toward crypto. Even Scaramucci gave Trump credit for his choices, including new SEC Chair Paul Atkins.

"I want to be fair to him, and I want to applaud his administration for helping this industry," Scaramucci said. "With Donald Trump, you take the good and the bad. I told somebody, you're at the Mar-A-Lago buffet and guess what? It's not 'all you can eat,' it's 'you must eat everything.'"

So far, eating everything has pushed crypto to new heights, with Bitcoin and now Ethereum both clearing new all-time highs since Trump began delivering on campaign promises to make the U.S. "the crypto capital of the world."

That win for Trump and for the industry seems increasingly secure. It may just be too early to tell at what costs.

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