Dalio Calls Bitcoin A Bubble

Add another big name to the bitcoin bubble camp. On Tuesday, Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio told CNBC there’s no reason bitcoin prices should be as high as they are.

When asked about bitcoin’s value, Dalio delivered some very practical analyses.

“Bitcoin today, you can’t make much transactions in it. You can’t spend it very easily,” he said.

In addition to failing to meet one of the most basic purposes of a currency, he also said bitcoin is a terrible store of value, another basic function of a currency.

“It’s not an effective store-hold of wealth because it has volatility to it, unlike gold,” the hedge fund manager said.

A currency that is difficult to spend and not a good store of value that is skyrocketing in price led Dalio to a clear conclusion.

“Bitcoin is a highly speculative market. Bitcoin is a bubble.”

Dalio’s comments come just days after JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon called bitcoin a “fraud.”

“It’s just not a real thing, eventually it will be closed,” Dimon said at the Delivering Alpha conference.

Despite a growing list of naysayers and Chinese regulators recently shutting down Bitcoin exchanges, Bitcoin has been mostly resilient. The Bitcoin Investment Trust GBTC is up 2.1 percent over the past five trading sessions, and the price of bitcoin is up another 324 percent in 2017.

China has already closed bitcoin exchanges to local customers, and is reportedly planning a more comprehensive ban for the near future. The Chinese central bank said that the regulation of cryptocurrencies is aimed at reducing abuse and fraud. Bitcoin, Ether and other digital currencies allow completely anonymous financial transactions, making them popular tools on the black market. Blockchain Intelligence Group estimates that illegal transactions account for roughly 20 percent of total bitcoin volume.

Related Link: Bitcoin Has A China Problem