Ray Dalio (레이 달리오), founder of the world’s largest hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, said his bitcoin holdings still amount to about 1 percent of his overall portfolio. While recognising bitcoin as a form of money, he drew a line by saying gold is better in terms of investment priority.

On July 30, Bitcoin Magazine reported that Dalio made the remarks in an appearance on the podcast “The Diary of a CEO.”

Dalio called bitcoin “a type of money that cannot be printed.” He then pointed to both technological change and the possibility of government intervention as risk factors. He said the emergence of quantum computing could hurt bitcoin, and that governments could monitor transactions or impose taxes. He mentioned that digital currencies have a similar nature as well.

He said his actual allocation is low. Dalio said bitcoin accounts for only 1 percent of his portfolio and added, “I prefer gold to bitcoin.” During the broadcast, he pointed to a gold bar and directly stressed that his preferred asset is gold.

He said the stance is the same as the investment allocation he disclosed last year. Dalio also acknowledged at the time that bitcoin accounted for about 1 percent of his total investment assets. His view of bitcoin has softened compared with the past, but he is still maintaining a conservative stance in asset allocation.

Dalio has long placed more weight on gold than bitcoin. He also pointed out in 2020 that bitcoin’s price volatility is too high to be used as money, and instead argued that everyone should include a certain amount of gold in their portfolio. This time, he again presented gold as a better investment in the same context.

He also raised concerns again about regulatory risk. Dalio said governments can respond strongly to bitcoin if they do not want it. “If the government doesn’t want it, it has the power to do what it wants,” he said. “Central banks will not hold bitcoin in meaningful size because they also want transaction privacy and control,” he said.

He said acceptance by traditional finance is higher than in the past. Bitcoin has gradually been accepted over the years among institutional investors and major Wall Street investors. The world’s largest asset manager BlackRock has also been part of that trend.

Larry Fink (래리 핑크), BlackRock’s chief executive officer, has in recent years called bitcoin an “international asset” and has evaluated it as a means of “digitalisation of gold.” Even with the same bitcoin, Dalio did not see it as a substitute for gold, while BlackRock emphasised the characteristics of digital gold. As a result, the trend of bitcoin being incorporated as a mainstream asset is continuing, but even among major investors, risk perceptions and asset-allocation approaches are still diverging.