American billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio recognized on Monday that he holds Bitcoin and praised the cryptocurrency’s role as a better inflation hedge asset than bonds, implying a turnaround on his skeptic stance on the industry.
During CoinDesk’s annual Consensus conference, the investor talked about the virtual currency amid rising inflationary concerns. “I have some Bitcoin,” Dalio said, who also added that he personally has the cryptocurrency than a bond. When referring to a possible regulatory’s stricter environment for the near-future during the surging investor demand, the billionaire commented: “I think Bitcoin’s biggest risk is its success.”
“One of the great [risks]… is the government having the capacity to control almost any of them—Bitcoin or [other] digital currencies. They know where they are, and they know what’s going on,” the hedge fund manager added. The optimistic comments in Bitcoin’s future came in the middle of discussing a pessimistic view regarding the US dollar.
In November 2020, the also chairman of Bridgewater Associates didn’t have such a favorable stance on cryptos. “Bitcoin and other cryptos are too volatile to be considered an effective store of wealth. That volatility also hurts bitcoin’s use transactionally because vendors won’t know how much they’re getting,” Dalio said at that time.
Furthermore, in a tweet, the billionaire said: “I might be missing something about Bitcoin so I’d love to be corrected.”
The regulatory concerns among the crypto industry came again into the spotlight following the strain of news coming from China, which helped to fuel the current prices’ meltdown. Bitcoin mining firms like Huobi Mall and BTC.TOP had suspended their activities in the Asian giant due to the uncertainty regarding the country’s regulatory environment.
Other countries with a lesser share in the crypto mining Global Hash Rate like Iran had also recently launched crackdown campaigns on unauthorized mining farms.
(Photo: flickr)
