Ray Dalio on Bitcoin: “Could Become Outlawed by Governments”
Key Takeaways
- Bitcoin’s biggest risk would be to get outlawed by governments, according to Ray Dalio
- Ray Dalio praises Bitcoin’s characteristics, says it’s “one hell of an invention”
Ray Dalio Discusses BTC Latest Trends
The founder of Bridgewater, the largest hedge fund in the world, Ray Dalio, has long been following the developments of Bitcoin. In a recent interview of his, the billionaire investor discusses the latest trends in Bitcoin and what could happen to the digital asset in the future.
Ray Dalio started the interview by mentioning some positive characteristics of Bitcoin, such as its security, growing adoption, and serving as a store of value. “Bitcoin has proven itself over the last 10 years…it’s by and large worked on an operational basis. It is an alternative store-hold of wealth. It’s like digital cash. And those are the pluses.”
Bitcoin Risks
He went on to enumerate some risks to bitcoin and its growing adoption. According to the billionaire investor, bitcoin could present a threat to governments’ control of the financial system. “Every country treasures its monopoly on controlling the supply and demand. They don’t want other monies to be operating or competing, because things can get out of control. So, I think that it would be very likely that you will have it under a certain set of circumstances outlawed the way gold was outlawed,” Ray Dalio said in the interview.
Still, the risk of banning the world’s largest cryptocurrency remains far away, if any, according to the US Federal Reserve. The central bank’s chairman, Jerome Powell, recently warned against cryptocurrencies and bitcoin. While he did not mention any ban or move against the crypto space, Mr. Powell said the Federal Reserve will move slowly towards developing a central bank digital currency.
Is Bitcoin a Threat to Governments?
Ray Dalio has been dabbling in bitcoin for a few years now but only recently started to pay more attention to the crypto market. In a tweet exchange near the end of last year, he discussed Bitcoin openly with the intention to “be corrected”. In January this year, the hedge fund manager talked about bitcoin being a threat to governments in a Bridgewater research paper. In the research, he praises bitcoin as “one hell of an invention” for its attributes of being a type of money and a store hold of wealth. He also says that Bitcoin’s biggest risk is “being successful because if it’s successful, the government will try to kill it and they have a lot of power to succeed.”