Wall Street financier seizes on Treasury Secretary Bessent’s debt warning

Wall Street financier seizes on Treasury Secretary Bessent’s debt warning

Anand Sinha

Sat, September 5, 2026 at 1:07 AM GMT+3 3 min read

• BTC-USD +0.35%

The SkyBridge Capital founder and former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci latched onto U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's latest debt warning to make the case for Bitcoin (BTC).

"The world is awash in debt and the only way for us to get out of this is to grow our way out of this," Bessent told reporters before kicking off the G20 finance meeting early this week.

As the meeting ended, the Treasury Secretary said that debt distress can prevent companies from investing. He added that the meeting set the stage for further work on making sovereign debt restructurings in emerging markets "faster, more transparent, and more predictable."

The U.S. national debt has already surpassed $40 trillion, prompting Scaramucci to turn Bessent's debt warning into an appeal for Bitcoin.

Related: Analysts rank Bitcoin above Tesla in new tech growth asset list

Who is Anthony Scaramucci?

Scaramucci is a Wall Street financier who began his career at Goldman Sachs before launching and selling Oscar Capital Management to Neuberger Berman in a span of a few years. He later founded SkyBridge Capital, a New York investment firm that still manages billions across hedge fund and crypto strategies.

While Scaramucci had been critical of Donald Trump earlier, Trump appointed him White House Communications Director on July 21, 2017, during his first presidential term. But the president dismissed him ten days later for criticizing members of the administration.

After falling out with the president, he turned into a Trump critic. During the 2024 presidential election, he lent support to Joe Biden and later Kamala Harris.

Scaramucci is also well-known for his commentary on the Bitcoin market. In August last year, he warned that Bitcoin could crash 40% before it eventually hits his long-term target of $500,000.

While Bitcoin peaked above $126,000 in early October, the cryptocurrency soon crashed and traded 50% lower than its peak for months afterwards, as he had predicted.

Trending on TheStreet Roundtable:

Scaramucci makes the case for Bitcoin

On Sep. 5, Scaramucci wrote on X that Bessent's "the world is awash in debt" warning at the G20 is "Bitcoin's entire pitch."

"Twenty finance ministers just delivered the best Bitcoin ad of the year and none of them meant to."

Launched in 2009, Bitcoin is the world's first decentralized cryptocurrency. It means it isn't controlled by a centralized intermediary like a government or a central bank.

Bitcoin maximalists argue the soaring debt and currency debasement make the case for Bitcoin stronger.

When a government spends more than it earns, it incurs debt. To address the crisis, the government tends to print more money. But as the currency's supply increases, its value decreases.

The debasement trade thesis popular among Bitcoin maximalists like Scaramucci claims that unlike fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar, Bitcoin has a limited maximum supply of 21 million coins, which makes it a long-term valuable asset.

Bitcoin was trading at $79,610 at the time of writing, as per Decibel.

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This story was originally published by TheStreet on Sep 4, 2026, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.