new york new york  november 30 bridgewater associated founder ray dalio visits mornings with maria hosted by maria bartiromo at fox business network studios on november 30 2018 in new york city photo by roy rochlingetty images for ray dalio bitcoin is like a digital version of gold but the billionaire clearly values one higher than the other if you put a gun to my head and you said i can only have one says dalio i would choose gold dalio who turns 72 on sunday revealed in may that he owns an undisclosed amount of bitcoin after previously raising concerns about cryptocurrencies for years still he isnt completely sold on the concept i own a very small amount of bitcoin im not a big owner dalio now tells cnbc make it there are certain assets that you want to own to diversify the portfolio and bitcoin is something like a digital gold in 2017 dalio stepped down as coceo of bridgewater associates after building his company into the worlds largest hedge fund he now serves as bridgewaters chairman and cochief investment officer and reemerged into the entrepreneurial world last year by launching principles a people management software startup he has long been a bit of a gold bull in 2019 he wrote on linkedin that adding gold can help balance ones portfolio because it is both riskreducing and returnenhancing last year bridgewater poured more than 400 million into gold during the second quarter globally central banks currently hold more than 35000 metric tons of gold about a fifth of all gold ever mined according to reuters typically central banks hold gold to diversify their reserves and since gold is a finite physical commodity it is a natural hedge against inflation bitcoin can also help hedge against inflation as dalio himself told coindesk in may but if forced to choose between gold and bitcoin he says hed pick gold due to its long history as a storehold of wealth meaning an asset that can be held and converted into money at a relatively similar rate as its purchase price in other words bitcoins volatility is a concern for dalio and not his only one in dalios mind there is a reasonable chance that bitcoin could eventually be outlawed by the federal government the nearly centuryold precedent in 1934 president franklin d roosevelt signed the gold reserve act transferring all of the countrys privately held gold titles and certificates to the united states department of treasury at the time the us adhered to the gold standard roosevelt hoped to boost the countrys economy coming out of the great depression by devaluing the dollar any major economic downturn or inflationary event dalio told yahoo finance in march could prompt similar action on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies from federal governments across the world