Who is Anthony Pompliano?
Anthony Pompliano is a famous pro-bitcoin crusader from California, United States. He co-founded Morgan Creek Digital Assets Company in 2018.
The investor and entrepreneur, nicknamed Pomp, had a short stint in the US Army as a teenager, but lack of passion partly made him turn down a contract-extension offer. He later turned his focus into an investment where he placed a capital of over a 100 million USD in several new companies in four years.
Furthermore, he is a crypto analyst and writes many newsletters for institutional investors. On a self-made program known as the Pomp Letter, he shares his perceptions on matters of Bitcoin, business, finance, and technology. The newsletters (transcripts) are accompanied by podcasts he makes with his voice. Let’s dig deeper into his contributions to cryptocurrency.
My entire background didn’t make it on the television cut this morning, but here it is for every Bitcoiner who would appreciate it 🙂 pic.twitter.com/iTdTq2UuZo
— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) November 25, 2020
Anthony’s Career Path
Pompliano was born in 1988 in Hollywood, Florida, USA. He is the son of ANEXIO’s pioneer Tony Pompliano. He specialized in Economics and Sociology at Bucknell University. However, in 2006, at the age of 17, he temporarily cut short his tertiary education to serve the United States Army. He formed part of the troops deployed to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2008 till 2009.
Despite the attractive financial rewards promised for renewing the military contract, Anthony’s father urged him to go back and finish school. He had missed three semesters. Furthermore, he did not have a passion for a military career.
In 2013, he and Matthew Cotter co-founded the social media marketing solutions platform, Digaforce. However, it was acquired by Strategic Link Partners later that year.
Pomp joined Facebook in 2014 and served as a Product Manager, but left the following year for Snapchat for a short stint where he led the Growth Team. In August 2016, he combined efforts with Jason Williams to set up Full Tilt Capital, where the duo invested in more than 20 deals within a short span of three months. He was a managing partner in this firm.
Almost two years later (April 2018), Pompliano, Mark Yusko, and Jason Williams co-founded the investment company Morgan Creek Digital Assets.
Pompliano has been invited as a speaker in high-profile crypto summits like the 2020 Global DeFi Summit in the UK and the 2019 Crypto Invest Summit in California.
Pioneer Role at Morgan Creek Digital Assets Company
Pompliano became a partner in this new set up which had acquired; Full Tilt Capital. The firm is a hedge fund that pools investment funds to safeguard the investor’s interests, but mostly leans towards cryptocurrency blockchain and digital assets.
In the same year of inception, the firm collaborated with Bitwise to build synergy to create digital assets. Examples of such digital assets include pension plans, endowments, and foundations. The partnership’s digital currency is stored in offline storage. There’s a commitment from the two to audit the fund on an annual basis. Anthony is a member of the Index Policy Committee that manages the fund.
One of Morgan Creek Digital’s notable investments in 2019 was two of Fairfax county’s pension schemes. The two placed a capital of 55 million USD in October. The allocation was the second after they saw impressive results from the initial fund earlier that year.
One of the schemes was for the county’s police, whereas the other for the county’s employees. The former allocated 22 million USD, whereas the latter invested 33 million USD.
One of the excellent performance reasons is the impressive growth of cryptocurrency that accounts for 15% of Morgan Creek’s portfolio.
Partnership With Digital Artists
Pompliano believes that blockchain-based digital art has a bright future. He places his estimates for the traditional art market’s value at around 65 billion USD in the past few years. On the other hand, he puts the forecast for digital art below 10 million USD.
However, he predicts a 6000x growth for the digital art industry, because he believes it’s superior to older art. Anthony describes traditional art as motionless until moved from the wall, challenging to authenticate and prone to damage. He believes that upgrade to digital art can solve all these challenges.
That explains why he reached a consensus with his partner, Jason Williams, to buy the ownership of digital art marketplaces that use non-fungible tokens to confirm ownership of digital work.
Pomp has already announced the firm’s plan to partner with digital artists to popularize their work. Their first target is FEWOCiOUS and their work The Innovator’s Dinner.
🚨 We are listing the iconic Innovator's Dinner NFT for sale tonight.
The 1 of 1 piece was commissioned from @FEWOCIOUS a year ago and has become one of the most sought after pieces of digital art in the world.
It will be the first NFT to sell for $1 million. 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽 pic.twitter.com/jG7qpm8WhP
— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) February 24, 2021
Pompliano’s idea has its fair share of critics. The primary argument that divides opinion is that digital art is easy to copy. Nevertheless, proponents of the counter-argument hold that copies of the original lack the original copy’s authenticity. They believe that it’s their ownership rights on the blockchain and not the copies that make digital art valuable.
It’s noteworthy that both sides of the argument have a point. It will take immense effort to prove that the original digital piece is different from a copy if we ignore the ownership aspect.
Digital Art Auctions
To consolidate their belief in the art, the two business partners have taken part in digital art auctions. Though they lost the bid to a Trevor Jones piece on Nifty Gateway, they went ahead to buy the physical copy from which it was based. Luckily, they won a bid for Hackatao’s work for 12,888 USD.
Pomp believes that blockchain technology will be baked into the non-fungible token technology. By removing intermediaries, artists will receive royalties whenever their collectibles are traded.
Advice to Pension Funds on BTC Investment
The Morgan Creek Digital pioneer urges public pension funds to invest 1-5% of their portfolios in Bitcoin. Currently, they struggle with funding, and the rising value of the currency would alleviate their deficit problems.
He underscores his claim by pushing forth a reminder that he has been talking this way since 2018 and that BTC has tripled in value since then.
In a 2020’s podcast, he offered his advice to giant California’s pension fund (CALPERS), which struggles after the COVID-19 pandemic. He felt that instead of increasing their investments on illiquid assets, they should think about allocating to BTC, which would boost their risk-adjusted returns.
The investment consultant praised Bitcoin by calling it the 150+ billion USD asset, which is shooting forward to become the new global reserve currency.
Anthony’s attitude to Bitcoin
Pompliano is among the most zealous campaigners of Bitcoin. He supports the notion of BTC as a store of value and is for the idea of widely adopting it in the USA to remain competitive in the current financial world.
He is against those who claim that the system is unsafe and prone to attacks. Though he doesn’t refute, he claims that many indicators are suggesting the robustness of the currency. He cites the increased number of transactions, hash rates, and the development of more wallets as some of the positive points. Moreover, he is passionate about digital currency. His Twitter feed is flooded with cryptocurrency updates and inspirational lines for heavy investors of BTC.
Who should I convince next?! pic.twitter.com/tna0A4DZ6c
— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) December 2, 2020
Every week, he traces the milestones reached by the digital currency and is fond of repeating the maxim: bitcoin still not dead. He has once fought for bitcoin’s relevance from the harsh critics like Mark Cuban and Shark Tank’s Kevin O’ Leary.
In an interview with Robert Kiyosaki, Pomp commented on how cryptocurrencies, just like traditional currencies (i.e., precious metals), stick to the most critical money principles. He praised BTC for being transparent and verifiable and cited the two attributes as crucial for any digital currency. Anthony further predicts that both the precious metals and crypto will grow once the current bleak financial environment improves.
Bitcoin’s Safe Haven Status
Pompliano plays down the volatility of Bitcoin in the heat of the Covid-19 pandemic (March 2020). The digital asset’s value dropped by a worrying 50%. Other assets suffered a 15-30% value drop.
However, he advises against fear and emotion in investment as opposed to long-term vision. He lauds the asset for earning a safe haven status by bouncing back in value a year later. Investors got an answer to their question on whether the currency could thrive even in a situation of market uncertainty.
The investor asserts that it’s the only asset that you could safely hold during the economic chaos brought by the pandemic.
BTC Non-Correlation Attribute
The investment expert further believes that Bitcoin is an unique asset whose value does not correlate with the other traditional market assets’ trends. He considers it a worthwhile way for investors to diversify and secure their investments by placing some of their capital on Bitcoin. The investor once disclosed in a 2019 interview that 50% of his capital was invested in Bitcoin.
Bitcoin: The decentralized Currency
Anthony declares his allegiance to Bitcoin because it doesn’t belong to a single owner, but enjoys complete decentralization. He believes that it’s the cryptocurrency that matters because its programmatic nature secures its market from manipulators. Moreover, Pomp notes that BTC separates state and money, the only monetary commodity other than gold.
Pomp’s attitude to Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)
The investment expert advises that it is time the American government thinks of implementing a CBDC. In the last quarter of 2020, he criticized the sluggish approach to implementation, as revealed from the United States Federal Reserve chairperson’s comments when he said they might launch one in the next couple of years.
Pomp believes that time is of the essence in the matter. The chair feels that it’s better to be slow but accurate in issuing the currency. However, the investor fears that the United States will trail China if they take their time because accessibility is everything in such matters. China is moving swiftly in the digital currency race; its Digital Yuan tests are already underway.
Pompliano and the Pomp Crypto Jobs
Two months ago, Pomp partnered with three crypto firms: BlockFi, Coinbase, and Gemini to set up a crypto job’s platform.
There is a simple way to get a job quickly in bitcoin and crypto industry.
Join us: https://t.co/EaWrk2lCb3 pic.twitter.com/T2WUzZC8Qq
— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) March 18, 2021
With the swift growth of cryptocurrency and millions of people without jobs, Pomp believes that the markets needed a meeting point for the two parties. Crypto companies and interested job applicants can enroll for free on the PompCryptoJobs platform. The companies are charged from 200 till 500 USD for job listings. The jobs could require the physical presence of the job seeker or could be done virtually.
The jobs board can admit applications from all over the globe unless there’s a communicated restriction. Applicants need to upload information on their official identities, email addresses, and resumes. The platform has thus made it easier for companies to find the right candidate for their job tasks. The platform is ideal for job seekers well versed in blockchain development, blockchain project management, blockchain design, and legal consultancy.
The Venture Fund
Towards the end of 2020, Pompliano decided to use his popularity to launch a venture fund built on his person and brand. However, the “rolling fund” structured venture will involve renowned Silicon Valley and Wall Street investors’ syndicate. The new setup will make “himself” an investable entity.
Pomp argues that it will offer him a great deal of flexibility, especially when he places his capital on budding technology firms. Since the fund revolves around him, he will set up a solo general partner where other investors can place their capital for startups or other investments.
Anthony earns his popularity from his Pomp Letter Podcast for finance-related issues and a massive following on Twitter. He believes the global business landscape is ripe for solo capitalists like himself and that the rolling fund system makes investment accessible for the average person. When it comes to investment in his brand, he advises:
You’ll never regret betting on yourself.
DeFi Advisor
In 2021, DeFi Technologies Company appointed Pompliano to strengthen its team of advisors. The Canadian-based investment firm specializes in asset management in the decentralized finance space. Pompliano was happy about the appointment and felt that his expertise could help them land the best deals and go for the right teams.
According to the chief executive officer, the firm has brought the expert onboard to tap his expertise on matters concerning venture portfolios to set up revolutionary DeFi platforms and projects.
Pompliano’s Vision for Bitcoin In 2021
The Morgan Creek co-founder believes that the price of Bitcoin will keep on growing in the year.
He’s expressed his support for PlanB’s Stock-to-flow statistical model that forecasts the value of Bitcoin over time. He supports the $100,000 forecast for the worth of BTC by December 2021.
He foresees friendly macro-economic conditions in 2021. Pomp considers that and the May 2020 Bitcoin halving as key catalysts in pushing the currency’s price towards the 6-figure value. Moreover, he believes the rising demand for BTC by corporate investors coupled with its dwindling supply has to push the price higher.
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