(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Anthony Scaramucci said he is investing in a company created by Brett Harrison, the former president of the defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX US.
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Scaramucci will use his own money for the company to show his support for Harrison, he said in an email.
Harrison had been seeking financing for a cryptographic software company with a valuation of up to $100 million, Bloomberg News reported last month. The proposed idea was software that cryptocurrency traders could use to write algorithms for their strategies and access different types of crypto markets, both centralized and decentralized, two people familiar with the matter said at the time.
โAnthony has been a true mentor and friend to me since I joined the crypto industry two years ago,โ Harrison said in response to questions from Bloomberg News. "I am honored to have him as an investment partner and I know his guidance will be invaluable as we begin this new chapter."
FTX Ventures, the venture capital unit of Sam Bankman-Fried's now-imploded crypto empire, announced in September that it had acquired a 30% stake in Skybridge Capital from Scaramucci and that the companies would expand their collaboration across venture investments and digital assets. Amid FTX's slide into bankruptcy, Scaramucci said SkyBridge would work to buy back that stake, later saying he had done some checks on Bankman-Fried before the deal, but "it wasn't enough."
Harrison worked at FTX US for approximately 17 months, resigning in September. Before that, he had been at Citadel Securities and at the quantitative trading firm Jane Street, where he had worked with Bankman-Fried.
Scaramucci commented on the investment in a response to a Twitter thread from Harrison about his experiences at FTX US.
โBrett was a great developer and deeply understood the FTX product,โ Bankman-Fried said in a comment to Bloomberg News on Harrison's Twitter thread. โWhile I strongly disagree with much of what he said, I have no desire to enter into a public discussion with him, nor do I feel it my duty to litigate his job performance in public, unless he authorizes me to do so. .โ
Bankman-Fried added: "I feel bad for what happened to all of the FTX employees and I wish him the best."
--With the assistance of Annie Massa and Hannah Miller.
(Adds comment by Sam Bankman-Fried in the last two paragraphs)
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