Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio has reignited the gold-versus-Bitcoin debate.
On X, he argued that the world's largest cryptocurrency has failed to live up to its safe-haven reputation.
However, Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) chairman Michael Saylor has hit back at the comments
Related: Billionaire Ray Dalio warns of major threat to investor wealth
Ray Dalio questions Bitcoin
Dalio laid out a three-part case against Bitcoin (BTC).
He argued that its lack of privacy is a fundamental flaw, pointing out that transactions can be monitored and potentially controlled.
A key reason, he said, is why central banks have shown little appetite to hold it.
He also highlighted Bitcoin's persistent correlation with technology stocks.
"When investors get squeezed in other areas of their portfolio, they sell their Bitcoin to cover it,"he said.
Finally, Dalio argued that the Bitcoin market remains relatively small and susceptible to manipulation, while gold's deep roots in the global financial system make it uniquely irreplaceable.
"There is only one gold."
He finally said that gold is more widely held, deeply established, and continues to play a central role in the global system.
Popular on TheStreet Roundtable:
Saylor hits back
Saylor was quick to push back. In a characteristically terse reply on X, Saylor reframed the entire debate with a single rhetorical contrast.
"Gold is analog capital. Bitcoin is digital capital."
Far from conceding Dalio's privacy critique, Saylor turned it on its head.
He argued Bitcoin's transparency is precisely what makes it viable as global collateral. This is not a weakness to be exploited, but a design feature that enables trust at scale in a way that opaque, physical assets cannot.
Saylor also pointed to hard data.
"Since we adopted the Bitcoin Standard on Aug. 10, 2020, Bitcoin has outperformed gold with a higher Sharpe ratio."
The Sharpe ratio is a measure of how much return an investment generates relative to the risk taken to get it.
Saylor added a chart that compares the annualized returns of six major assets since the "Bitcoin Standard Era."
Bitcoin leads by a wide margin at 40% annualized, more than doubling the next best performer, the Nasdaq-100 ETF at 19%.
The S&P 500 ETF returned 16%, while gold, the very asset Dalio champions, came in just behind at 15%, barely edging out a broad real estate ETF (VNQ) at 6%.
At the bottom sits the bond ETF in negative territory at -1%.
At the press time, Bitcoin was trading 1.1% lower at $80,326.12, while gold was also down 1.1% and trading at $4,665.77.
Related: MicroStrategy moves to raise $42B in massive stock sale
This story was originally published by TheStreet on May 12, 2026, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
