Ray Dalio bats for crypto’s relevance, admits to having “some” Bitcoin, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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MUMBAI: Renowned billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio today admitted to owning “some” Bitcoin as he stressed the argument that the cryptocurrency can act as the best store of value in an inflationary environment.

The sharp change in Dalio’s position will come as music to the ears of cryptocurrency investors who have been battered by an intense meltdown in the asset class over the past week. The value of Bitcoin alone has crashed over 50 per cent from its record high although the cryptocurrency staged some comeback on Monday as it rose as much as 15 per cent.

At 08:27 pm, Bitcoin was trading 10.7 per cent higher at $37,711 on cryptocurrency exchange WazirX.

“I have some Bitcoin,” Dalio said in an interview at CoinBase’s Consensus 2021 event.

Dalio said that in an inflationary scenario, he would rather have “Bitcoins than bonds” as he echoed the argument some institutional investors have made recently in the cryptocurrency’s favour, i.e., Bitcoin could replace gold as a better hedge against runaway inflation that may happen in the West in the coming years.

The owner of the largest hedge fund in the world Bridgewater Associates, which manages assets worth over $100 billion, has recently warmed up to Bitcoin after being against it as soon as November.

“It seems to me that Bitcoin has succeeded in crossing the line from being a highly speculative idea that could well not be around in the short order to probably being around and probably having some value in the future,” the hedge fund manager had said in January.

However, Dalio reiterated that the cryptocurrencies will face existential threat from regulators and central banks.



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Bitcoin volatility decline paves way for banks, JPMorgan says, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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By Vildana Hajric

The recent pullback in Bitcoin’s volatility is setting the stage for a trend that could encourage institutions to dive in, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.

“These tentative signs of Bitcoin volatility normalization are encouraging,” strategists including Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote in report emailed Thursday. “In our opinion, a potential normalization of Bitcoin volatility from here would likely help to reinvigorate the institutional interest going forward.”

Three-month realized volatility for the cryptocurrency has fallen to 86% after rising above 90% in February, they wrote. The six-month measure appears to be stabilizing at around 73%. As volatility subsides, a greater number of institutions could warm to the crypto space, the strategists said.

The coin’s volatility has kept institutions away, something that’s been a key consideration for risk management — the higher the volatility of an asset, the higher the risk capital consumed by it, according to the strategists. None of the biggest U.S. banks right now provide direct access to Bitcoin and its counterparts.

Still, traditional Wall Street firms have been taking a greater interest in the coin, especially after it doubled this year on the heels of a 300% jump in 2020.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said this week it’s close to offering investment vehicles for Bitcoin and other digital assets to private wealth clients. Morgan Stanley plans to give rich clients access to three funds that will enable ownership of crypto and Bank of New York Mellon Corp. is developing a platform for traditional and digital assets.

Some of the attention on Bitcoin over the past two quarters has come at the expense of gold, JPMorgan’s strategists said, citing $7 billion of inflows into Bitcoin funds and $20 billion of outflows from exchange-traded funds tracking the precious metal.

Bitcoin volatility decline paves way for banks, JPMorgan says
Meanwhile, an additional boost to future adoption by institutions could arise from recent changes in Bitcoin’s correlation structure relative to other, traditional assets, according to JPMorgan strategists. These correlations have shifted lower in recent months, “making Bitcoin a more attractive option for multi-asset portfolios for diversification point of view and less vulnerable to any further appreciation in the dollar,” they wrote.



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