Founder of world’s largest hedge fund, says ‘bitcoin is a bubble’

CNBC: Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio said this week he is not a believer in cryptocurrencies.

“Bitcoin today you can’t make many transactions in it. You can’t spend it very easily,” Dalio said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

“It’s not an effective storehold of wealth because it has volatility to it, unlike gold,” the hedge fund founder added. “Bitcoin is a highly speculative market. Bitcoin is a bubble.”

The investor said there are two important facets to being considered a valid currency: ease of transactions as a medium of exchange and being a “storehold of wealth.”

“It’s a shame, it could be a currency. It could work conceptually, but the amount of speculation that is going on and the lack of transactions [hurts it],” he said.

Dalio wrote about his life lessons and the initial failures during his career in his book entitled “Principles: Life and Work,” available on Tuesday.

His firm currently manages about US $ 160 billion, according to its website.

Dalio’s negative comments come a week after JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon also took a shot at bitcoin, saying the cryptocurrency “is a fraud.”

“It’s just not a real thing, eventually it will be closed,” Dimon said at the Delivering Alpha conference presented by CNBC and Institutional Investor.