Ray Dalio Drops Bombshell: Why Bitcoin Won’t Become a Central Bank Reserve Currency
Billionaire investor Ray Dalio just threw cold water on one of crypto's biggest institutional dreams.
The Reserve Currency Reality Check
Forget the hype about central banks stacking Bitcoin like digital gold. Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, argues the flagship cryptocurrency lacks the stability and political neutrality traditional reserve managers crave. His take cuts through the speculative noise, pointing to volatility and regulatory uncertainty as fundamental roadblocks.
Institutional Adoption Hits a Wall
The vision of Bitcoin sitting alongside dollars and euros in national coffers faces a brutal truth: central banks prioritize control. A decentralized, borderless asset bypasses their traditional monetary levers. It's a feature for libertarians, but a fatal flaw for risk-averse bureaucrats managing trillion-dollar economies.
The Long Game Isn't Over
This doesn't spell doom for Bitcoin's value proposition—far from it. Dalio's warning highlights the growing pains of an asset class maturing in public view. The conversation itself signals how far crypto has come, from internet funny money to a serious topic for the world's biggest financial minds. After all, if traditional finance weren't at least a little threatened, they wouldn't bother dismissing it so loudly.
So, the next time you hear a pundit promise imminent central bank adoption, remember: in finance, the safest bet is often on inertia and the comforting embrace of the status quo.
Why Gold Still Tops Dalio’s Hard Asset Playbook
He extended the point with a security angle, raising the risk that Bitcoin could be cracked, broken, or controlled, and warning that these scenarios shape how he weighs the asset as a long-term store of wealth.
Dalio last year encouraged investors to favour gold and Bitcoin while avoiding debt assets, as major economies grapple with rising levels of indebtedness. He has long shown a preference for both Bitcoin and gold, but has also made clear that if forced to choose, he WOULD opt for gold.
Dalio reiterated he keeps some exposure, while ranking it behind Gold in his own hierarchy of hard assets. “I have a little bit of Bitcoin,” he said, adding that he still finds it less attractive than gold for the same reasons he laid out around traceability and interference risk.
Why Dalio Prefers Scarce Assets Over Fiat-Linked Tokens
He also took a dim view of stablecoins as a wealth-holding tool, since they track the fiat currencies they are pegged to and typically do not pay interest. “A stablecoin is attached to the fiat currency,” Dalio said, before describing their main role as transactional plumbing rather than a long-term reserve asset.
For Dalio, stablecoins fit best where speed and convenience matter. “It’s used largely for immediate, quick transactions,” he said, while stopping short of calling them a store of wealth.
The comments arrive as crypto markets keep courting mainstream legitimacy, with spot Bitcoin ETFs and institutional custody pushing digital assets deeper into traditional portfolios.
Even so, Dalio’s memo to crypto native investors stays simple, he sees Bitcoin as a form of money with scarcity value, then he sees gold as the cleaner hedge when the goal is insulation from state control.
