Anthony Scaramucci’s SkyBridge Capital lost 39% last year in its biggest funds after wrong-way bets on cryptocurrencies and now-bankrupt FTX, spurring investors to ask the firm to return more than half of their money.
SkyBridge’s largest fund, with $1.3 billion of assets at the end of the third quarter, had one of its worst months of 2022 in November, when FTX declared bankruptcy, according to people familiar with its performance.
Investors, who are now limited to making two withdrawal requests each year, asked to pull 60% of the fund’s capital for the Sept. 30 redemption period, but SkyBridge only returned 10%, according to a January regulatory filing. Previously, the firm allowed four redemption requests per year and said it would return as much as 25% of the cash each quarter.
A spokeswoman for New York-based SkyBridge declined to comment.
Scaramucci, 59, and FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, 30, had built a close relationship over the past two years. Beginning in 2021, SkyBridge bought equity in the closely held crypto exchange, with the most recent purchase last August. The next month, another entity controlled by Bankman-Fried acquired 30% of SkyBridge.
Bankman-Fried was arrested in December over allegations that he fraudulently used customer money to prop up the trading firm he founded, Alameda Research. He has pleaded not guilty.
Various cryptocurrencies accounted for 28% of the SkyBridge fund, while private crypto-related companies, including its FTX stakes, comprised 14%.
It also invests in some traditional hedge funds. Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management and Izzy Englander’s Millennium Management, were two bright spots in the portfolio, with both firms up about 12% last year. Together they accounted for about 24% of fund assets as of September.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.