Ray Dalio: ‘I Have Some Bitcoin’
The billionaire hedge fund boss sees an inflationary future where “cash is trash” and BTC catches on as a store of wealth. He still doubts governments will tolerate it.
Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio(Daniel Zuchnik/Getty Images, modified by CoinDesk)
Lawrence Lewitinn
May 24, 2021 at 3:20 p.m.
Updated May 24, 2021 at 3:40 p.m.
Ray Dalio: ‘I Have Some Bitcoin’
Concerns about a looming global debt crisis have taken the world’s top hedge fund manager from doubting bitcoin (BTC) to dabbling in it.
Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio said the U.S. dollar is on the verge of devaluation on a level last seen in 1971 and that China is threatening the greenback’s role as the world’s reserve currency. In such an environment bitcoin, with its gold-like properties, looks increasingly attractive as a savings vehicle, said Dalio, whose firm started 2021 with $101.9 billion in assets under management, making it the world’s largest hedge fund.
“Personally, I’d rather have bitcoin than a bond” in an inflationary scenario, Dalio said during an hour-long conversation with CoinDesk Chief Content Officer Michael J. Casey.
Now, his interest is more than hypothetical or academic.
“I have some bitcoin,” Dalio volunteered in the middle of the interview, recorded on May 6 and to be broadcast Monday during Consensus by CoinDesk 2021.
Dalio joins fellow billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller in not only expressing pessimism about the dollar but taking a position in bitcoin. Broadly, the traditional finance world has gone from ignoring or shunning to tentatively embracing cryptocurrencies, some looking to profit from their day-to-day volatility, others seeking a haven from inflation as governments swelled money supplies during the coronavirus pandemic.
Bridgewater’s chief financial officer, John Dalby, recently left the storied firm to join NYDIG, the bitcoin custodian and prime brokerage that facilitated insurance giant MassMutual’s $100 million crypto buy.
After expressing skepticism about the cryptocurrency as recently as November, Dalio began to show a change of heart this year. “There exists the possibility that bitcoin and its competitors can fill that growing need” for an alternative store of value, he wrote in January.
Dalio’s off-the-cuff remark to CoinDesk about owning “some” BTC represents the closest thing to an endorsement from him to date. Nonetheless, in the same conversation, he reiterated his concern that governments, fearing competition from bitcoin to state monetary systems, could crack down on its owners.
“Bitcoin’s greatest risk is its success,” Dalio cautioned.