Legendary billionaire hedge fund manager, the founder and co-chief investment officer of Bridgewater Associates, has recently slammed Bitcoin ($BTC) and other cryptocurrencies as they don’t “replicate anything” and are “not an effective storehold of wealth.”
During an interview with We Study Billionaires, the legendary investor, who has an estimated net worth of over $19 billion, said that while blockchain technology is “excellent,2 it’s “very important to distinguish it from a digital currency.”
Per his words, there have been various fads in the cryptocurrency sector, but the digital assets within it “don’t replicate anything” and are “not an effective storehold of wealth.”
During the interview, Dalio commented that the cryptocurrency sector receives a disproportionate amount of attention given the relatively small market capitalization of the space, which at the time of writing stands at just above $1 trillion. He likened it to Microsoft’s market capitalization, which is currently of $1.8 trillion.
For context, the largest company by market capitalization is Apple, which at the time of writing has a $2.3 trillion market capitalization as it’s trading at around $146 per share. It’s followed by Saud Arabia’s oil giant Saudi Aramco, which has a $1.86 trillion market share.
In the interview, Dalio also said that we’re in an environment “in which we’re creating a lot of debt,” which has people wanting to “look for alternative storeholds of wealth.” However, he believes digital currencies “don’t replicate anything” and are not an inflation hedge.
Moreover, the billionaire investor said that cryptocurrencies offer no privacy benefits as other people are able to access transactions on the blockchain. The legendary hedge fund manager acknowledged, nevertheless, he owns a “tiny bit” of crypto over the uncertainty of what may happen with it in the future, even though he believes better cryptocurrencies will be launched over time.
