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. 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.

Ray Dalio: ‘I Have Some Bitcoin’, CoinDesk, May 25