Over 100 million podcast downloads and 1.7 million followers on X have transformed former Army Sergeant Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano into one of digital finance’s most influential voices. The 36-year-old entrepreneur, who began buying Bitcoin in the early 2010s, has leveraged his fervent advocacy into a multi-platform media operation that shapes cryptocurrency markets and mainstream adoption.
His impact extends beyond simple promotion. Pompliano’s persistent messaging about Bitcoin as “a hedge against inflation” and “digital real estate” has filtered into institutional investing circles, contributing to record crypto adoption. This growing influence recently attracted Elon Musk’s X platform, which tapped Pompliano for its first business news program, signaling crypto’s continued push into conventional finance discourse.
From Military Service to Digital Finance Authority
Pompliano’s unconventional path to crypto influence began with military deployment rather than finance credentials. After serving as a U.S. Army sergeant in Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2008-2009, he founded Digaforce, a social media intelligence platform, which was acquired by Strategic Link Partners in 2013.
“Valley street cred” soon followed with high-profile roles at Facebook in 2014 and Snapchat in 2015, according to a 2024 TechCrunch interview. This tech background positioned him to co-found Full Tilt Capital in 2016, an early-stage venture fund that made 22 investments in its first 90 days before being acquired by Morgan Creek Capital Management.
His 2018 co-founding of Morgan Creek Digital Assets with Jason A. Williams marked his formal entry into cryptocurrency investing. The firm focuses on blockchain technology and digital assets for institutional clients and wealthy family offices, giving Pompliano direct insight into market movements that inform his content.
Building a Multi-Platform Media Machine
“The Pomp Podcast” (formerly “Off The Chain”) has amassed over 50 million downloads, featuring interviews with prominent figures like venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya, Howard Lutnick, Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood, and entrepreneur Mark Cuban. His YouTube channel has grown to over 600,000 subscribers, while “The Pomp Letter” newsletter reaches more than 260,000 subscribers daily.
This media foundation enabled Pompliano’s February 2025 launch of “From the Desk of Anthony Pompliano,” X’s first hour-long daily business news program. Airing weekdays at 10:30 a.m., the show represents X’s investment in original content and Pompliano’s expanding influence.
“You can’t just take someone who’s been a TV host for years and expect them to thrive on X,” Pompliano told NYNext. “You need to understand the language, the culture, the nuances of the platform.”
His approach differs from traditional financial media. “I’m not a journalist. I almost look at what we do is we’re providing analysis on what the journalists globally find,” he explained. “If you were to take the mainstream media, that’s kind of the front page of the newspaper. What we want to be is the opinion section.”
Navigating Controversies While Expanding Influence
Pompliano’s path has included notable controversies, particularly regarding promoted crypto firms that later faltered. In January 2023, he halted all cryptocurrency advertising on his media platforms, citing reputation concerns following FTX’s collapse.
“I think that this is the harder path to go by not having advertisers on the podcast or on YouTube videos, but it is the path that I think is the right path,” he stated, according to reporting from The Deep Dive.
Despite these challenges, Pompliano continues expanding his business ventures. He recently launched Professional Capital Management, a firm that incubates startups and allocates profits across public and private markets, with investments in nearly 200 companies, including Lyft, Coinbase, Reddit, and SpaceX.
His 2025 Bitcoin Investor Week conference in New York City features prominent speakers, including Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), investor Mike Novogratz, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood, demonstrating his continued pull within the industry.
As cryptocurrency regulations increase, Pompliano’s voice in policy discussions grows correspondingly louder. “I don’t actually think that the majority of people in business or finance wanted to talk about politics. I didn’t want to,” he told NYNext. “But when you see a founder is telling you that they personally were de-banked, their company can’t launch because of a regulator somewhere… eventually you say, well, why is this happening?”
With a diversified business portfolio estimated to generate a net worth between $100-200 million and growing mainstream attention, Pompliano’s influence on cryptocurrency discourse appears positioned to extend well beyond digital asset markets and into broader economic policy conversations in the years ahead.
