At a time when billionaire investors are increasingly placing their bets on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, others are proving more than difficult to convince. For instance, while Bridgewater Associates Founder Ray Dalio has given up his belief in fiat currency, he still isn’t sure about Bitcoin being a better store of value than gold.
During a recent CNBC interview, the exec reiterated his position on Bitcoin. This, despite Dalio revealing his own holdings of the same in the past. While echoing the now-famous term “Cash is Trash,” he suggested that investors should look into portfolio diversification, rather than keeping their profits in cash.
Dalio has long been raising awareness about inflation and its direct consequences. On the contrary, Bitcoin is a deflationary asset that has outperformed most traditional assets over the years. According to the exec, in such a scenario, alternatives to cash and traditional assets are a “worthy consideration.” Even Bitcoin might be a “possibility,” he added.
It’s worth noting, however, that Dalio also claimed that Bitcoin’s success would be marred by regulatory pushback.
“It’s an amazing accomplishment to have brought it from where that programming occurred to where it is in the test of time (…) I think at the end of the day if it’s really successful, they will kill it and they will try to kill it. And I think they will kill it because they have ways of killing it.
When asked about how he would perceive the El Salvador news, he explained,
“You have El Salvador taking on it and you have India and China getting rid of it. And you have the United States talking about how to regulate it and it could still be controlled.”
Here, it should be pointed out that India has not yet banned cryptocurrencies. In fact, they are likely to be classified as assets or commodities and further compartmentalized based on their use cases, according to the local media. On the other hand, China has also not outrightly banned Bitcoin, despite its strong reservations.
In any case, Dalio believes regulations will be the death of the digital currency due to its lack of “intrinsic value.”
“There are so many things in a historical perspective that didn’t have intrinsic value and had perceived value. And then it went hot and it became cold. It could be either way. You just have to know what it is. It could be Tulips in Holland.”
Sounds contradictory, right? If Bitcoin does indeed lack “intrinsic value,” why does the exec have holdings of it? Well, according to some, Bridgewater could soon be “moving big” into cryptocurrencies. Such comments, ergo, are just a way for him to stay on the right side of regulators, one analyst added.
legacy system. His comments are a nod and reassurance to the system that he's not discarding it. Example: He's a member of the NY Fed's outside advisory committee on financial markets.
Also, Dalio is known for exhaustive analysis. His use of historical parallels has always…
— MacroScope (@MacroScope17) September 15, 2021
Preston Pysh was also one to lash out at the investor on Twitter for not understanding Bitcoin’s implications for struggling economies. He tweeted,
.@RayDalio's deep relationship with China, makes it understandable why he suggests governments can shut BTC down (p.s. good luck). I think he fails to understand the incentive that most countries have to move away from dollar dominance…& the collective game theory that follows. https://t.co/muo6ItbV7E
— Preston Pysh (@PrestonPysh) September 15, 2021
