The Bridgewater founder said Bitcoin fits his hard-money framework but remains a small holding, while warning that debt, inequality, geopolitical strains and an AI bubble threaten the broader financial order.
Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio said he keeps roughly 1% of his personal portfolio in Bitcoin and still prefers gold as a safer hard-money asset, while urging investors to diversify for a period of rising economic and financial risk. He said investors should consider allocating 5% to 15% of portfolios to assets that cannot be printed, including Bitcoin and gold, as protection against inflation, fiscal strain and potential disruption in the global financial system. Dalio said a serious AI-focused bubble is forming in markets and argued that high debt levels, income inequality and geopolitical tensions are putting the economic order under pressure. He reiterated that Bitcoin has drawbacks that make him more cautious on it than on gold, including the potential for taxation, restrictions and government control, as well as privacy concerns and possible technological risks such as quantum computing. Gold, he said, remains the more established haven because of its long history and status as a tangible asset that is not solely another party’s liability.