Crypto-friendly Ray Dalio pulls out of Bridgewater’s $150 million fund
After 47 years in charge of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, founder Ray Dalio has completed a leadership transition that began in February. He is no longer one of three co-chief investment directors, but will remain an investment director mentor and operating board member.
As announced on October 4 on Bridgewater’s corporate website, the firm and Dalio completed the necessary and necessary legal, regulatory and investor requirements to complete the transition procedure. From now on, the fund will be led by co-CEOs Nir Bar Dea and Mark Bertolini, and a pair of co-chief investment officers: Greg Jensen and Bob Prince.
One of the most powerful figures in the global financial market, Dalio demonstrated a healthy evolution of his views on crypto. Back in 2017, he called Bitcoin (BTC) a bubble because of the amount of speculation and the lack of transactions. Three years later, he expressed his skepticism once again, saying:
“There are two purposes of money, a medium of exchange and a store of wealth, and Bitcoin is not efficient in either of those cases now.”
The tipping point for the super investor’s opinion on crypto is the November 12, 2020 Twitter thread where Dalio, while repeating his earlier concerns about volatility, asked to be corrected if “he’s wrong about these things.” What followed were the explanations from the likes of Meltem Demirors, Zac Prince and Mati Greenspan.
Related: Robert Kiyosaki calls Bitcoin a “buying opportunity” as the US dollar rises
In December 2020, Dalio claimed that BTC can offer protection against “depreciating value of money”, and in January 2021, he called it an “incredible achievement” and one of the few “alternative gold-like assets at this time of increasing need for them” in Bridgewaters note to investors.
While he repeatedly shared fears that the US government would take zero tolerance to digital money, Dalio continued to sympathize with Bitcoin, describing it as a superior instrument to save for government or corporate bonds. In January 2022, when the shadow of global inflation has already become a hot topic among experts, Dalio listed three main reasons why Bitcoin, along with gold, can be an inflation hedge: the network has never been hacked, it has no better competitor and BTC- adoption rates suggest it could erode gold’s market value further.
