Dalio warns that regulators will “kill” Bitcoin if it becomes too successful

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Ray Dalio said regulators will close bitcoins if the cryptocurrency is too successful and rejected Ark Invest’s Cath Invest Wood’s predictions that its price would multiply tenfold in five years.

The founder of Bridgewater Associates, who spoke at the Salt Conference on Wednesday, said bitcoin would be a viable investment alternative as long as payments were accepted, but added: “At the end of the day, I think it really has success. . .[regulators]will try to kill him “.

He also confronted Wood, who told the Salt conference (an annual meeting of hedge fund managers in New York City) that he expected Bitcoin to be worth $ 500,000 in five years, a forecast Dalio said “It doesn’t make sense.”

Wood’s investment firm has submitted plans for a fund traded on bitcoin exchange, although it has not yet received regulatory approval.

Dalio’s comments come after Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, called on Congress for more regulatory powers to deal with the “wild west” of cryptocurrencies.

Last week, the SEC warned Coinbase, the first major U.S. cryptocurrency exchange to go public, that it would sue the company if it launched a new digital asset lending product called Lend.

The news sparked a debate about whether these products, which allow users to earn interest on certain digital assets, should be considered securities and therefore be the responsibility of the regulator.

Dalio said he himself has bought cryptocurrencies, but his stakes are still small compared to his investments in gold. He added that “governments do not want alternative currencies,” but that investors should diversify their holdings.

The price of bitcoin has risen nearly 50% this year, with well-known investors like Paul Tudor Jones and Stanley Druckenmiller pulling their weight behind the cryptocurrency.

Dalio, who is co-investment director and co-chair of the world’s largest hedge fund with more than $ 100 billion in assets, also said he is preparing to leave the industry. “I’ll be done in a year or two,” he said.

The investor predicted that the markets would be different in the coming years as the effects of the fiscal and monetary stimulus were exhausted. “You’ve had a good stimulant and everyone is tall and fantastic. But when that runs out, it will be a slightly different picture, ”he said.