TL;DR Breakdown
- Ray Dalio reveals he owns Bitcoin
- Dalio concerned for Bitcoin if it becomes successful
Former Bitcoin skeptic and billionaire investor Ray Dalio has finally revealed that he has invested some money in Bitcoin. The founder of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, said the crypto has earned his respect.
The hedge fund manager has previously called Bitcoin “one hell of an invention” and that he found it challenging to put a value on digital assets since investing in Bitcoin means recognizing the potential to lose about 80 percent.
“I have some bitcoin,” Ray Dalio told CoinDesk during its 2021 Consensus conference. The interview was recorded on May 6 and published Today, Monday.
However, he still expresses concerns about the cryptocurrency, noting that crypto still faces risks and said Bitcoin’s risk is its success. He said after bitcoin becomes successful, he worries if the government can control it again.
Should cryptocurrencies continue to gain traction, investors might decide to invest in them rather than government bonds, Dalio said. The result is that governments lose control over their ability to raise money.
Dalio has been bearish bonds for some time, saying in March that the economics of investing in bonds “has become stupid” because they pay less than inflation.
This isn’t the first time Ray Dalio expressed concern about the risk of government regulation.
In March, Dalio warned of the possibility that the U.S. government could ban bitcoin as it did with gold during the 1930s if the cryptocurrency is seen as a competitive threat to treasury bonds.
Analysing Ray Dalio, could government ban Bitcoin?
James Ledbetter, editor of fintech newsletter FIN and CNBC contributor, previously told CNBC Make It that it’d be quite difficult for the government to ban Bitcoin effectively.
Although there’s “concern or risk around regulation” of bitcoin, “I don’t think even a concerted effort among different countries and different central banks could actually shut down bitcoin,” Ledbetter said. “I don’t think that’s technologically possible. But there are ways that Bitcoin could be regulated.”
