Crypto's been 'cut to ribbons' in FTX's crash, but it can survive if players stop lighting each other up on Twitter, Anthony Scaramucci says

• Anthony Scaramucci said the crypto industry has been "cut to ribbons" this year, after FTX's crash.
• He said the industry can only grow up if crypto players stop lighting each other up on Twitter.

Crypto's been "cut to ribbons" in the wake of FTX's collapse, but it can survive if young players stop lighting each other up on Twitter, according to SkyBridge Capital's Anthony Scaramucci.

Scaramucci stressed that the crypto industry can only grow up if crypto players collaborated with each more instead of banging heads with each other.

"What should the industry do to survive and make it better? In my opinion, it's more collaboration but the problem with the industry is there's a lot of young people that like antagonizing each other and lighting each other up on Twitter," he said at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore in November.

To illustrate his point, he used a Twitter spat between FTX's former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, who also goes by "CZ," which ultimately led to the collapse of Bankman-Fried's crypto empire.

"I think there was a red flag, sort of a penalty flag of Sam going after CZ, but also CZ going after Sam," he said.

Before FTX's downfall that reverberated through the crypto industry, Zhao tweeted that Binance would be liquidating all its FTT tokens — a crypto token native to FTX — due to "recent revelations."

In response, Bankman-Fried appeared to strike back at Zhao, tweeting: "a competitor is trying to go after us with false rumors," per media reports including Bloomberg and Reuters.

"I think it would be better for everybody if we just sort of calm things down and row in the boat together in synchronicity as opposed to taking the oar and smacking each other over the head," Scaramucci said.

His firm was exposed to FTX's collapse after Bankman-Fried bought a 30% stake in his company. Now, Scaramucci is trying to buy back that portion. He told CNBC hours before FTX filed for bankruptcy in early November that he's in a worse position because Bankman-Fried has hurt the industry.

Despite Scaramucci's appeal for calm, Zhao and Bankman-Fried have continued to trade barbs over Twitter. In early December, CZ called the FTX founder a "fraudster" who became "unhinged" when Binance pulled out of its rescue deal. Bankman-Fried hit back by telling him there was "no need to lie" about the buyout.

Within days, Zhao doubled-down on the criticism, describing the former FTX boss as "one of the greatest fraudsters in history." Since then, Bankman-Fried has been arrested in the Bahamas and charged by US authorities with wire fraud, money laundering and other counts.