Ray Dalio: Why Central Banks Are Unlikely to Hold Bitcoin

Billionaire investor Ray Dalio argued that central banks are unlikely to hold Bitcoin (BTC) as foreign-exchange reserves. Speaking on a podcast, Dalio said Bitcoin’s public ledger and traceability create control and regulatory risks — governments can monitor, restrict or disrupt peer-to-peer flows through exchange rules, wallet regulation or mining bans. He contrasted Bitcoin with gold, calling gold “the only asset that governments cannot touch or control,” and cited gold’s physical anonymity, long history, global recognition and relative price stability. Dalio flagged practical barriers to sovereign adoption: regulatory uncertainty, custody and technical challenges, digital-security risks (cyberattacks, infrastructure concentration, future tech like quantum computing), and Bitcoin’s volatility. He disclosed a modest personal allocation (around 1%) to Bitcoin, acknowledging its store-of-value and portfolio-diversifier narrative but remaining skeptical that conservative institutions will treat it as a core reserve without clearer regulation, reduced volatility and operational solutions. Traders should watch regulatory developments and institutional custody solutions; in the near term this view supports Bitcoin’s role as speculative store-of-value rather than a central-bank reserve asset.