Scaramucci Calls Banks ‘Cab Companies’, Frames Coinbase And Tether As ‘Uber’

Coinbase earns a share of USDC reserve revenue, including 50% of Circle’s residual payment base under their partnership model.

• SkyBridge Capital founder said banks face “Uber-style” disruption from crypto firms like Coinbase and Tether.
• He argued banks can either “adopt” crypto rails or use Washington lobbying to slow stablecoin features like yield.
• Coinbase’s stablecoin economics and Tether’s expansion plans show why stablecoins sit at the center of the bank-crypto competition.

Anthony Scaramucci compared traditional banks to “cab companies” and crypto firms such as Coinbase (COIN) and Tether (USDT) to Uber during Bitcoin Investor Week, according to the Pomp podcast released on Friday.

The founder and managing partner of Skybridge Capital, Scaramucci, spoke to Anthony Pompliano, saying that, "The banks are the cab companies, and Brian Armstrong and Coinbase and Tether are Uber." 

Crypto Firms Challenge Traditional Banking Models

Scaramucci said that crypto-native companies were building new systems that could challenge old banking models, framing the comparison as a change in financial infrastructure. He said that traditional institutions had to choose between adapting to blockchain-based financial systems or slowing their growth through government rules.

“They can adopt, and they can improve their functionality, or they can go to their lobbyists in Washington and say do everything you can to stall this technology,” he added. 

Speaking on the Pomp Podcast, Scaramucci suggested that efforts to influence stablecoin regulation could shape how digital asset firms compete with traditional financial institutions. “Don’t let stable coin holders have yield on their stuff,” he said, describing what he viewed as potential pressure from banks in Washington.

Scaramucci also pointed to stablecoins as a regulatory flashpoint, saying banks could push lawmakers to restrict stablecoin holders from earning yield, a key point of contention that has currently stalled the CLARITY Act from passing. 

Stablecoins At The Center Of The Competition

Stablecoins are becoming more and more of a link between crypto and traditional finance because they are meant to stay pegged to the U.S. dollar, while moving on blockchain rails. 

As Washington continued to talk about stablecoin regulation, Tether, the company behind USDT, expanded its presence in the U.S. The company announced last month that it would launch USA₮, a federally regulated, dollar-backed stablecoin that would work within the new federal stablecoin framework set up by the GENIUS Act. As lawmakers moved forward with stablecoin legislation, the initiative was a step toward working within a formal U.S. regulatory framework.

For Coinbase, stablecoins directly tie to revenue. Under disclosures in Circle’s (CRCL) IPO filing last year, Coinbase received a share of revenue generated from reserves backing USDC, including 50% of Circle’s “residual payment base.” A significant portion of distribution costs went to Coinbase under the USDC partnership model. 

Coinbase (COIN) was trading at $171.09, down 0.15% in after hours of Friday. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around COIN remained in ‘bearish’ territory, with ‘low’ chatter levels over the past day. 

On Friday, the U.S. SEC's Division of Trading and Markets said that the staff would not object if a broker-dealer took 2% off the value of its own positions in payment stablecoins when figuring out its net capital. The way payment stablecoins were treated was the same as the way money market funds had to meet their capital requirements.

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