Billionaire investor raises concerns about digital currency oversight
Ray Dalio, the billionaire hedge fund manager who founded Bridgewater Associates, recently shared some thoughts about central bank digital currencies that got people talking. During an interview on the Tucker Carlson Show, he laid out what he sees coming down the pipeline.
He thinks CBDCs are inevitable. “I think it will be done,” Dalio said, pointing to the transaction ease they could offer. He compared their functionality to money market funds in some ways. But here’s where it gets interesting – or concerning, depending on your perspective.
The privacy trade-off that worries Dalio
Dalio’s main warning centers on what governments could do with these digital currencies. Every transaction would be visible to authorities, he explained. That might help with controlling illegal activities, which sounds reasonable enough. But it also opens the door to a level of financial oversight we haven’t seen before.
“They can take your money,” Dalio said bluntly about taxation possibilities. A programmable digital currency would let governments tax directly, establish foreign exchange controls, and potentially seize funds from nationals of sanctioned countries. He called this an “increasing issue” for international currency holders.
Perhaps most concerning is what Dalio called political debanking. You could be “shut off” from a CBDC if you were “politically disfavored.” That’s a pretty stark picture of how financial systems might be weaponized.
The practical limitations Dalio sees
Beyond the control issues, Dalio doesn’t think CBDCs will be particularly good savings vehicles. He believes they “probably won’t” offer interest, which means holding them would mean watching your money depreciate with inflation. Not exactly an attractive proposition for long-term savings.
He expects there will be debates about all this, and he’s probably right. The balance between convenience and control is tricky territory.
Where things stand globally
Right now, only three countries have officially launched CBDCs: Nigeria, Jamaica, and The Bahamas. That’s according to the Atlantic Council’s tracker. But 49 countries are in pilot testing, including major economies like China, Russia, India, and Brazil. Another 20 have CBDCs in development, with 36 still researching the concept.
India’s central bank reportedly proposed linking BRICS countries’ CBDCs back in January to facilitate cross-border trade and tourism payments. So the momentum is building, even if implementation varies widely.
In the United States, things look different. President Donald Trump has been vocally opposed to CBDCs, signing an executive order soon after taking office in January 2025 that prohibits “the establishment, issuance, circulation, and use” of a US CBDC. So an American version isn’t likely anytime soon.
Dalio’s comments come during what feels like a transitional moment for digital currencies. Governments are clearly interested in the efficiency and control possibilities, while citizens and investors like Dalio are weighing what that control might mean in practice.
It’s not just about faster transactions or modernizing payment systems. It’s about who gets to see your financial life, and what they can do with that information. Dalio seems to think we should be having this conversation now, before the systems are fully built. And given his track record in finance, people tend to listen when he talks about where money might be headed next.
