Ray Dalio said in a CoinDesk interview on Monday that he'd rather ownbitcoin thanbonds .- He said he owned "some bitcoin," the first time he's disclosed a position in the cryptocurrency.
- The Bridgewater founder has been bearish on bonds for a while, saying they pay less than
inflation .
The billionaire investor Ray Dalio said in an interview that aired Monday at the Consensus by CoinDesk convention that he would rather own bitcoin than bonds.
The Bridgewater Associates founder reiterated his view that the US dollar is on the verge of a devaluation, and he suggested that bitcoin could be an attractive savings vehicle in an inflationary scenario.
"The more we create savings in it, the more you might say, 'I'd rather have bitcoin than the bond,'" Dalio said in the interview, recorded on May 6. "Personally, I'd rather have bitcoin than a bond."
The billionaire investor has been bearish on bonds for quite some time, saying the financial instruments pay less than inflation.
"I have some bitcoin," Dalio said in the interview. The investor didn't say how much he owned.
Bitcoin rebounded on Monday by as much as 15%, to about $38,683, after a vicious sell-off over the weekend.
Dalio added that bitcoin's greatest risk is its success - if it becomes a larger asset class and poses a real threat to others, like bonds, that could prompt a regulatory crackdown that could hinder the cryptocurrency. Right now bitcoin isn't a true threat because it's still small relative to other assets, he said. The total value of bitcoin is slightly over $1 trillion, while the value of US bonds is about $23 trillion, according to Dalio.
In March, Dalio said the US government could ban bitcoin altogether if it became too successful.
The investor was skeptical about the cryptocurrency as recently as November but warmed up to the idea of bitcoin at the start of 2021. In an investor letter, he described bitcoin as "one hell of an invention" and said bitcoin and other cryptos could become an alternative, gold-like store of value.