Billionaire Ray Dalio: Governments will choke Bitcoin before it realises its potential

Governments will ban Bitcoin if its success seems too large to them, says billionaire and founder of Bridgewater Associates, Ray Dalio.

In an interview with Yahoo! Finance, Dalio again said he is skeptical about Bitcoin’s prospects and favors gold.

If Bitcoin becomes truly important, the authorities will ban it. They will declare it illegal and use all available tools to coerce this. They will say: “You cannot conduct transactions with Bitcoin, you cannot own Bitcoin.” After that you will start thinking: “Is this a crime? Should I break the law?”

Dalio reminded that, in the past, authorities had already banned gold, the only drawback they saw being its use as a store of value.

Do I prefer Bitcoin to gold? No. Gold will be the instrument that central banks and governments will choose as an alternative to regular money,” he added.

The billionaire also sees other obstacles on Bitcoin’s path, including its volatility.

There are currencies like Bitcoin, there are alternative currencies in terms of supply and demand and stores of value. But there are also digital currencies, digital versions of the dollar, the euro, and the yuan. I think we will see more of the latter,” he added.

Earlier this year, Dalio advised disposing of fiat when building a diversified portfolio, but did not leave space for Bitcoin, calling cryptocurrency a speculative asset.

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