Investor Ray Dalio urged people not to treat Bitcoin as equivalent to gold, arguing the leading cryptocurrency lacks central bank backing, offers limited privacy and faces questions around long-term safeguards such as quantum resistance. On the All-In Podcast he said, “there is only one gold,” calling gold the “most established money” and noting it is the second-largest reserve asset held by central banks. He asked why central banks would long-term hold an asset that operates on a public ledger.
Dalio acknowledged Bitcoin’s hard-money attributes but pointed out its strong correlation with tech stocks, warning that ownership and supply–demand dynamics can shift if investors are forced to sell elsewhere, which can move prices across markets. He also criticized Bitcoin’s privacy limitations—“any transaction can be monitored”—and cautioned that advances in quantum computing could threaten the network’s security.
The timing of his comments stood out. On the same day Dalio spoke, gold plunged roughly 3% to about $5,127 per ounce while Bitcoin fell only about 0.7% to $68,650. Five days into rising U.S.–Iran tensions, gold—Dalio’s preferred safe haven—suffered a larger drop than the cryptocurrency he often critiques.
Dalio’s stance is not entirely dismissive of Bitcoin. He says he keeps roughly 1% of his portfolio in Bitcoin for diversification and has previously suggested investors might allocate around 15% to either Bitcoin or gold as a hedge against mounting U.S. debt. He has also warned that the U.S.-anchored global order has effectively unraveled, prompting a rethink of how to protect wealth and whether gold alone still serves that role.
Market data from CoinGecko showed Bitcoin hitting a one-month high of $71,805 earlier in the day before retracing to $70,851, representing a 4.9% gain in the past 24 hours and an 8.4% rise over the past week.