Scaramucci's SkyBridge accelerates its move into crypto with a blockchain partnership

KEY POINTS

• SkyBridge Capital's Anthony Scaramucci is stepping up his firm's move into the cryptocurrency world.
• The firm is teaming with trading platform NAX to raise $250 million for a fund that will be known as UNLOX and will target spreading blockchain availability to institutions.

Anthony Scaramucci, founder of SkyBridge Capital II LLC, speaks during the International Economic Forum of the Americas (IEFA) Toronto Global Forum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on Sept. 6, 2019.

Cole Burston | Bloomberg | Getty Images

SkyBridge Capital's Anthony Scaramucci is stepping up his firm's move into the cryptocurrency world, announcing on Monday a partnership aimed at expanding into the blockchain universe.

The hedge fund is joining with NAX's trading platform in a series of fundraising efforts, the first of which will seek to bring in up to $250 million.

Using a fund that will be known as UNLOX, with Scaramucci as its chairman, the group will focus on a variety of decentralized finance efforts associated with digital currencies like bitcoin. Blockchain is the database infrastructure around which the cryptocurrency world is built.

UNLOX will target institutions to use blockchain to securitize assets such as property, corporate securities and venture capital. The group will also target the nascent push into nonfungible tokens and other alt assets.

The blockchain operation of Algorand will be the crypto base for the partnership, while NAX will provide commercial support and SkyBridge will be the institutional base for the fund. Algorand uses what it describes as a "carbon-negative" operation, in contrast to much of the crypto industry that is energy-intensive due to the sophisticated computer networks needed.

NAX CEO Jeff Schumacher cited Algorand's "feature-rich, high-performance platform" as ideal for the venture.

Scaramucci's SkyBridge was among the first hedge funds to move into bitcoin. The firm also has a stake in ethereum.

"Algorand is going to be the winner in building the backbone for what institutions need and financial services companies need," Scaramucci said.

A formal announcement on the initiative will happen Monday morning at SkyBridge's SALT conference, which will be held for the first time in New York City.

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