Billionaire Investor Ray Dalio: BTC Bans "A Good Probability"
2 min read
Billionaire investor and founder of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates Ray Dalio said that government bans on BTC are a “good probability” in the future.
“Every country treasures its monopoly on controlling the supply and demand. They don’t want other monies to be operating or competing, because things can get out of control,” Dalio told Yahoo Finance’s editor-in-chief Andy Serwer.
“They outlawed gold, that’s why also outlawing BTC is a good probability,” Dalio added.
Debate continues as to whether BTC is a store of value, digital gold or a currency. Earlier this month, Citi released a report in which it predicted that BTC could even become the currency of choice for international trade.
Regardless of where someone lands on BTC’s true function, almost every BTC advocate believes it can provide a real peer-to-peer alternative to government-controlled fiat currencies. Obviously, the world’s governments wouldn’t welcome a direct competitor to their national currencies; hence why Dalio believes it’s likely that BTC will be banned. But is it even possible to ban BTC?
Can BTC be banned?
Anthony Scaramucci, former White House communications director, replied directly to Dalio with a tweet, simply stating that BTC can’t be banned.
You can’t “ban” #BTC https://t.co/Vos9z7w8LQ
— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) March 24, 2021
Scaramucci’s view echoes that of many BTC advocates, who argue that the flagship cryptocurrency cannot be banned. To date, BTC has also not suffered a fatal hack or attack that would undermine its operational integrity.
But according to Dalio, it is hard to imagine a world where BTC survives a concerted effort on behalf of powerful governments to ban the cryptocurrency. And in India, where the government has become embroiled in a controversial debate about banning BTC, those efforts may already be in play.
“India today is making moves to outlaw possession of [Bitcoin],” Dalio said, adding “My understanding from people who are in government surveillance and so on is that they can track it and they can know who is dealing with it.”
