Anthony Pompliano, Professional Capital Management founder and CEO, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the latest bitcoin price trends, what's behind the recent pullback, 2026 outlook, and more.

Anthony Pompliano, founder and CEO, noted that bitcoin's volatility has been decreasing, with recent price movements showing less dramatic spikes and drops compared to previous cycles. He emphasized that while bitcoin is down for the year and has not met some investors' high expectations, it remains up significantly over the past two to three years, with a strong long-term growth rate.

Pompliano also discussed the increasing competition among platforms like Coinbase, Robinhood, and traditional financial firms to become all-in-one exchanges, offering a variety of assets for 24/7 trading. He identified artificial intelligence and tokenization as key trends shaping the future of finance, predicting that companies will soon announce major developments in these areas.

Volatility of bitcoin has been coming down, says Anthony Pompliano

Let's look at Bitcoin prices this morning. Oh, my God. There might not be another interest rate cut. Better sell some Bitcoin. There it is right now down 598 at 87. We'll talk about where it's been with Anthony Pompliano, founder and CEO. I was looking at Coinbase. Got as high as 300 back in 21. Then it went all the way down to 30. Then it got all the way up, Anthony, and then we'll get to Bitcoin. All the way up to almost 400 again. Now it's almost been cut in half again. So very well down for the year. Bitcoin is now down for the year and down 30% from its highs. Well, you know what I think's happening here is I've been an investor in Coinbase since the private markets. And one of the things that's really interesting is they're going after this everything exchange. They basically want you to be able to buy public stocks, crypto, prediction markets, perps, everything on one exchange. But also if you see Robinhood is doing the same thing. Coinbase came from the crypto side. Robinhood came from the brokerage side. You also are starting to see now the traditional exchanges and the traditional financial players. Larry Fink recently said that artificial intelligence and tokenization are the two big themes of finance going forward. So what's gonna happen here is everyone is gonna meet in the middle. They're all coming from different areas, but ultimately they are all fighting for who is going to live at the center of artificial intelligence, crypto, and ultimately these everything exchanges where people can trade whatever they want, whenever they want, 24-7. And so I think that the key for public market investors is trying to figure out who's gonna get there first and who actually has the most durable business. Now Coinbase has somewhat of an advantage. They have 100 plus million users and they've come at it from a crypto-friendly standpoint. Many of these technologies are using that crypto plumbing and so having kind of a headstart in the crypto side is gonna be a big advantage. But I would not discount the traditional players. These people have a lot of money, they're very ambitious, and they understand the regulatory apparatus. And so you're going to have this kind of cutthroat competition and ultimately the winner is the individual investor or the individual citizen because they're going to get lower prices, faster market access, and ultimately better pricing on these different opportunities. Bitcoin was 125. There were people talking about 150 by the end of the year, even higher than that, and then long-term over a million dollars a coin. It hit a road, a bump in the road on the way to some of those numbers, right? Took a long, long turn at Albuquerque or something. You point out what, it's up 100% in two years? Yeah, I mean, look, I think that there are a lot of Bitcoin investors that are disappointed that Bitcoin did not go to 150, 200, 250. I mean, take your crazy number that people were predicting. At the same time, we have to remember, Bitcoin is up 100% in two years. It's up almost 300% in three years. It has been compounding. The compound annual growth rate of Bitcoin over the last decade is 70%. This thing has been a monster in financial markets, but it has volatility. And so one of the aspects of Bitcoin that people aren't talking about is that the volatility of Bitcoin has actually been coming down. And so we didn't get a blow off top that I think people expected in kind of the end of Q3 or beginning of Q4, but we also haven't seen the big 80% drawdown that people normally expect as well. Now, who knows what's gonna happen in the future? You could see the Bitcoin price go down a little bit more, or you could see it turn around and start to kind of grind up going into the midterm. Could you see it go down a lot more? You said a little bit more. You could, but I think given where the volatility is right now, it would be very surprising that Bitcoin's volatility has drastically compressed, and yet still you could get a 70 or 80% drawdown. The charts was in the 70s that Katie Stockton talked about. That was when we were still over 100. She was talking about after the first break under 100, I think. One of the most interesting kind of theories, if you will, that I've heard is Matthew Siegel, who's over at VanEck. He basically explained, he's like, look, if Bitcoin's volatility got cut in half, then rather than get an 80% drawdown, you would expect something like a 40% drawdown. That's about what we got from the $125,000, $126,000 price point down to around $80,000. And so again, does that mean that's what's gonna happen? Not necessarily, but I do think that this compression of volatility means that the holders will be a little bit disappointed on the upside, because you're not gonna get those blow-off tops. But also, there is some degree of safety or a persistent bid on the bottom side, where you're not gonna see these huge 75, 80% drawdowns as well. So what is, that hasn't happened yet, can happen for Bitcoin, either with regulators or Washington, or, I don't know, security-wise, more adoption, sovereigns, what's the next? There's nothing on the horizon, really. Is Washington still matter? Do you need that legislation? We don't have it yet, really. Again, if we go back to this idea of artificial intelligence and Bitcoin or crypto are kind of the two big areas where the future of finance is, what I believe is gonna happen here is I think that AI and AI agents are gonna be offense. They're gonna go out and they're gonna make money for these companies. You're gonna start to see AI applied inside of these financial firms, and they're gonna start to automate away tasks, and then eventually jobs. And they are going to be that offensive force to go and drive revenue. But then what's gonna happen is that these companies are gonna take that capital and they're gonna go and they're gonna stick it into crypto on their balance sheet. You can think of Bitcoin and crypto as the defense in actually protecting that purchasing power. Now, what I find very interesting is that that defense, some of it's gonna be Bitcoin, some of it's gonna be stable coins, some of it may even be tokenized gold. But I think that this combination of these two technologies is really where the finance is going. You see it from the startups, but also you see it from the large firms like BlackRock. And how long, years? I think that you're gonna see these companies start really announcing stuff over the next six months.

French Parliament has approved the Stopgap Bill two days before Christmas. The budget bill now moves to French senate.

Parijs

French Parliament approves Stopgap Bill: Budget bill moves to senate

Russia fired more than 650 drones and three dozen missiles at Ukraine in a large-scale attack that began during the night and stretched into daylight hours Tuesday, officials said. At least three people were killed, including a 4-year-old child, two days before Christmas.

Kiev

Russia carries out massive drone attack on Ukraine's energy sector

The U.S. Department of Justice has released another batch of files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including videos, emails and documents. CBS News' Scott MacFarlane reports.

Washington

U.S. Justice Department releases new trove of Epstein files

The leaders of Denmark and Greenland insisted that the United States won't take over Greenland and demanded respect for their territorial integrity after President Donald Trump ‍​announced ​the appointment of a ‌special envoy to the semi-autonomous territory.

Nuuk

Trump's appointment of envoy to Greenland sparks tension with Denmark

Australia's most populous state is set to pass tougher gun laws, ban the display of terrorist symbols and curb protests after the state parliament's lower house cleared a bill late on Monday (December 22) in an emergency sitting following the Bondi mass shooting.

Council of the City of Sydney

Australia's NSW to tighten gun, hate speech laws after Bondi attack

On Monday, President Trump announced a new class of Navy battleships he's calling the "Golden Fleet." The president said two vessels will be built in the short term, with plans to expand to up to 25.

Trump unveils plans for new fleet of advanced Navy battleships

China's foreign ministry on Monday (December 22) said the United States' seizure of another country's ships was a serious violation of international law, after the U.S. intercepted a China-bound oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast.

Beijing

China says U.S. ship seizures ‘serious violation' of international law

A Russian general was killed by an explosive device underneath his car in Moscow, according to Russian investigators, who say Ukraine's intelligence services may have orchestrated the attack. Ukraine has not commented.

Moscow

Ukraine Invasion

Russian general killed in car explosion

The U.S. Coast Guard is pursuing an oil tanker in international waters near Venezuela, officials told Reuters on Sunday (December 21), in what would be the third operation in less than two weeks if successful.

Caracas

U.S. pursuing third oil tanker near Venezuela, officials say

At least 15 documents related to Jeffrey Epstein that were initially made public have been pulled from the Justice Department website. The agency says it will keep reviewing and redacting materials to "protect victims."

Epstein files pulled down to 'protect victims'

Nine people have died and at least ten others were wounded after a group of gunmen carried out a shooting at a South African pub during the early hours of Sunday, authorities said.

Bekkersdal

At least nine people killed in South Africa pub shooting

U.S. intelligence reports continue to warn that Russian President Vladimir Putin has not abandoned his aims of capturing all of Ukraine and reclaiming parts of Europe that belonged to the former Soviet empire, six sources familiar with U.S. intelligence said.

As peace talks go on, U.S. intel says Putin's war goals unchanged

A court in Pakistan has convicted and sentenced the imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, to 17 years in prison after finding them guilty of retaining and selling state gifts, including jewelry given by Saudi Arabia in 2021.

Islamabad

Former Pakistani PM Imran Khan convicted to 17 years in prison

The U.S. seized an oil tanker off Venezuela's coast on Saturday. It's the second time in two weeks that U.S. forces have carried out such an action. This comes after President Donald Trump announced a block of "sanctioned oil vessels" entering and exiting Venezuela.

Oil tanker seized off Venezuela, second in two weeks

The Justice Department released more documents related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Saturday after failing to meet Friday's deadline to release all the documents, as required by the law signed by President Trump last month. The Justice Department said the delay was, in part, to ensure that victims' information was protected.

Justice Department releases more Epstein documents Saturday

The U.S. Department of Justice released thousands of documents, photos and files related to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Friday. But some Democrats are criticizing the partial release because the department had a deadline to release all of the files by end of Friday.

'Partial' release of Epstein files faces criticism

The United States military “hit the ISIS [ISIL] thugs in Syria”, President Donald Trump has said, a week after two US soldiers and an interpreter were killed in Syria’s Palmyra city. Trump said he “ordered a massive strike on the terrorists that killed our three great patriots last week”.

Damascus

Trump says U.S has launched large-scale attacks on ISIL in Syria

Ukraine said its drones hit a vessel from Russia's shadow fleet – the first such strike in the neutral waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Russia's shadow fleet transports sanctioned Russia oil by frequently changing flags and concealing ownership.

Ukraine strikes Russian shadow fleet tanker in Mediterranean sea

The U.S. Justice Department has released thousands of files relating to Jeffrey Epstein, including photos featuring people like former President Bill Clinton and Mick Jagger. However, survivors are concerned with how much information was redacted from the files.

Thousands of new Epstein files, photos released

The U.S. military launched large-scale strikes against dozens of Islamic State targets in Syria on Friday (December 19) in retaliation for an attack on American personnel, U.S. officials said.

U.S. hits ISIS in Syria with large retaliatory strikes

The man suspected of carrying out an attack in Taiwan with a smoke grenade and knife acted alone, police said on Saturday of the incident that killed at least four, including the attacker. This edit contains graphic images.

Taipei City

Taipei attacker acted alone, police say after three killed

The suspect in the Dec. 13 mass shooting on the campus of Brown University was found dead by suicide in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, authorities said. He has been identified as 48-year-old Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a former Brown grad student.

Providence

How a Reddit post led police to the suspected university shooter

Seven people were killed, including former NASCAR driver Greg Biffle and his wife and children, in a plane crash in North Carolina. Investigators hope to find clues about why it happened on the cockpit voice recorder. Cristian Benavides has the latest.

Plane crash kills NASCAR driver, family

President Trump announced new agreements on Friday with nine pharmaceutical companies aimed at making certain prescription drugs cheaper. CBS News reporter Karen Hua has the details.

Trump announces agreements with major drugmakers to lower prices

The U.S. Justice Department released a new trove of documents from its investigations into the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Friday, bowing to pressure from lawmakers who forced their disclosure with a new law.

Washington County

Justice Department releases new tranche of Epstein files

The Justice Department has released a new batch of files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. CBS News legal reporter Katrina Kaufman has more.

Combing through newly released Epstein files

TikTok has signed a deal to sell its U.S. operations to a group of investors in America, a source familiar with the deal tells CBS News.

TikTok nears deal to avoid ban in the U.S.

Russian President Vladimir Putin reacted to the European Union's massive $108 billion loan to fund Ukraine's war against Russia.

Kyiv

European Union loans Ukraine billions as Putin boasts about war

The war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, continues to take a heavy toll on civilians, particularly in frontline areas such as Zaporizhzhia, where fighting and shelling persist.

Putin accuses Kyiv of rejecting peaceful settlement

The man believed to be responsible for carrying out the Brown University shooting and killing an MIT professor was found dead in a storage unit in New Hampshire on Thursday, officials said.

Breakdown