The founder of the world’s largest hedge fund has warned that the government will “kill” Bitcoin if it becomes too successful.
Billionaire Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, said “they” will shut down cryptocurrencies, apparently referring to regulators.
Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box”, Dalio said that “the governments don’t want to have it successful”.
“I think at the end of the day if it’s really successful, they will kill it and they will try to kill it. And I think they will kill it because they have ways of killing it,” he continued.
Bridgewater has just under $99 billion of assets under management and was founded in 1975. Dalio admitted that there is some Bitcoin in his portfolio, but less than in gold.
“I think it’s worth considering all the alternatives to cash and all the alternatives to the other financial assets,” he said.
“Bitcoin is a possibility. I have a certain amount of money in Bitcoin.
“It’s an amazing accomplishment to have brought it from where that programming occurred to where it is through the test of time.”
The price of Bitcoin has been on a generally upward trajectory since July, surging over $50,000 in early September. It has been hovering at around $47,000 for the past few days.
The billionaire hedge fund boss shied away from making firm predictions about the future of Bitcoin, other than to say it lacked intrinsic value.
“There are so many things in a historical perspective that didn’t have intrinsic value and had perceived value,” he continued.
“And then it went hot and it became cold. It could be either way. You just have to know what it is. It could be tulips in Holland,” Dalio said.
Although Dalio did not clarify exactly who “they” are when warning that Bitcoin would be killed, there is no shortage of powerful people and institutions that have called for cryptocurrency regulations.
Senator Elizabeth Warren is one of the most prominent advocates for a crypto clampdown and demanded a “coordinated and cohesive regulatory strategy to mitigate the growing risks that cryptocurrencies pose to the financial system”. She also believes Bitcoin is controlled by “shadowy faceless groups of super-coders”.
Enemies aside, Bitcoin also has many friends and supporters. Last month, the famous historian Niall Ferguson spoke out against attempts to “strangle” the nascent crypto industry, saying he was “depressed” to “see attacks on cryptocurrency by the custodians of the established order”.
