Anthony Scaramucci, SkyBridge Capital founder and managing partner, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the latest bitcoin price trends, whether there are any near-term catalysts, impact of the Clarity Act, state of crypto, and more. For access to live and exclusive video from CNBC subscribe to CNBC PRO: https://cnb.cx/42d859g
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What Anthony Scaramucci said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
Anthony Scaramucci, founder of SkyBridge Capital, said Bitcoin's recent nine-week tight volatility band stems from three factors: miners shifting compute power to AI, capital fleeing crypto into AI, and the four-year cycle nearing its bear-market end, about 18-19 months from the next halving. He remains bullish, predicting Bitcoin will move back above $100,000 as supply tightens, but expects grinding price action. He dismissed quantum computing as a major risk, saying core developers will handle it. On the Clarity Act, he called it a possible 'tiny catalyst,' with passage odds of 50-50, and predicted it would enable banks to hold Bitcoin and reduce regulatory swings, though he sees no near-term upside catalyst. He commented on World Liberty Financial's conditional bank approval, saying it's not a big deal and while conflicts should be watched, criticizing the president's children for business is unfair. He expects crypto companies to pursue banking licenses if Clarity passes.
Key takeaways
Bitcoin will move back above $100,000 as the halving cycle tightens supply, but only after continued grinding.
The Clarity Act has roughly 50-50 odds of passing in September and would be only a tiny near-term catalyst.
Bitcoin's current bear market has seen only a 55% drop, versus typical 75-80% drops, signaling net buyers.
If Clarity passes, money center, regional, and community banks will all be able to hold Bitcoin, and crypto companies should get banking licenses.
Quantum computing is not an overall risk to Bitcoin because core developers will solve it.
2:29I understand your catalyst is sort of the supply story on it, but is there anything else in the financing space that would be a catalyst on the upside?
Welcome back to Squawk Box. From the White House meeting with crypto executives expected tomorrow to Bitcoin prices and the latest on the Clarity Act, we're joined now by Anthony Scaramucci, SkyBridge Capital founder and managing partner, joining us from Wyoming's Blockchain Symposium. Good morning to you.
Before we get into all of the sort of big policy choices and thoughts, I'm just curious what you actually think of Bitcoin and the price of Bitcoin. We used to talk, Anthony, about Bitcoin and whether it was going up or down all the time. It had become sort of our signal of a risk-on versus risk-off. And it hasn't really moved much in quite a while. And I'm curious sort of what you think that means.
Well, I mean, there's a lot of different interpretations. I mean, I think my basic one is, and again, I'll just point out what you're saying is true, Andrew, because it's been nine weeks where Bitcoin is in the tightest volatility band that it's been in in the last five years. So it really hasn't moved much at all. I mean, when the war started in February, it was roughly the same price that it is today. So it's been grinding. But I think there's three things going on. One is a lot of the miners have transferred compute power over to AI, which disrupted the hash rate. I don't want to be overly technical with people, but I think that muted some of the volatility. The second thing is capital fled the cryptocurrency markets in addition to Bitcoin — other tokens in the cryptocurrency markets — into AI. And then I think the third thing is if you're a four-year cycle believer, like most people are in crypto, Bitcoin now is getting towards that end of what we would typically see the bear market of Bitcoin in the four-year cycle. So we're now through two years and we're about 18 or 19 months away from the next halving. So all of those factors I think have muted Bitcoin's price. But I guess the real question is are we still bullish on Bitcoin. And the answer is resoundingly yes. I think as the halving cycle comes in again and we cut the supply of coins again, it will tighten price. And I think you'll see the thing move back up over 100,000. But it's going to grind for a while, Andrew. And people don't like that.
Is there a catalyst though that would make it move higher? I understand your catalyst is sort of the supply story on it, but is there anything else in the financing space that would be a catalyst on the upside? And one of the things that I was going to say might be a catalyst on the downside, but I don't know, is I think there's been more pressure — or at least thought these days — around quantum computing and the potential for, you know what, maybe you disagree with this, but I keep hearing from people who are now talking more about what that means in cybersecurity and the ability to, you know, potentially break some of these algorithms longer term.
Well, I mean, I'll address that briefly. I think the core developers in Bitcoin will be able to figure that out. There's a lot of different ways that can be treated. I do understand why that would be an idea of worry for a retail investor that hasn't done as much research on Bitcoin as people at SkyBridge have done. So I don't see that as the overall risk. But I think you're bringing up an even bigger point. What is the catalyst? And I don't see a near-term catalyst, frankly, other than that supply-demand differential. Moreover, I don't think the Clarity Act — should it pass, and maybe it's 50-50 that it will — I mean, that was Senator Tim Scott is here with Senator Cynthia Lummis, and they still believe they can get this passed in September. That might be a tiny catalyst, but I don't see that as being a big catalyst either. So this is a grinding situation.
Why wouldn't it be? Because this is the bill that the industry has been trying to push for, to try to get some clarity for quite some time. Explain it to the audience. Why I would have thought that having this bill would be a big boon to the business.
Well, I think long term it would be a very big one. But you have to read through the bill and recognize what's going on. And basically, put simply, there'll be a lot of access opportunities for banks, and there'll be a lot of changes in the way you can hold your Bitcoin in the United States. And it would remove this sort of pendulum swing of regulation between Republican regulation and Democrat regulation. And all those things are good things. But again, this is just my opinion. It is a contrarian opinion. By the way, you could bring another person on. They'll say, oh no, the Clarity Act will be like a rocket ship for Bitcoin. But remember, you know, our team is looking at it every day and we're looking at the flows. And the good thing about Bitcoin, because it's on the blockchain, you can see all the activity. And so I'm just saying yes, if it passes, it's great for us long term. And I really do want to see it pass. But I'm not the perma-bull where I'm just going to tell you nonsense on television. I think it will go higher over time as the supply-demand differential changes once again. But again, 37 years doing this. Nine bear markets. This is a clear Bitcoin bear market. And yet we've only had a 55% drop in Bitcoin. We're in other bear markets, Andrew, you've gotten like a 75, 80% drop. So weirdly, you could take a position, well, that's actually a good sign that there's a lot of net buyers going into the next bull phase of Bitcoin.
Okay, I'm going to throw — I don't know if there's going to be a proverbial grenade into this conversation — but as somebody who has been an advocate for crypto for a long time, I'm curious what you made of the headline that World Liberty Financial, which of course is owned by the Trump family, has been conditionally given permission to become a bank. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
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Scaramucci, A. (2026, August 18). Expect bitcoin to move back up over $100,000 again, says SkyBridge's Anthony Scaramucci [Interview transcript]. CNBC Television. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1231868/
MLA
Anthony Scaramucci. "Expect bitcoin to move back up over $100,000 again, says SkyBridge's Anthony Scaramucci." CNBC Television, 18 Aug. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1231868/.
BibTeX
@misc{scaramucci2026_1231868,
author = {Anthony Scaramucci},
title = {Expect bitcoin to move back up over $100,000 again, says SkyBridge's Anthony Scaramucci},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, CNBC Television. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {aug},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1231868/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
