Dalio Urges Gold, Bitcoin Holdings as U.S. Debt Risks Mount

US Treasury debt buybacks involve repurchasing outstanding government securities to support market liquidity and manage federal financing. The transactions are distinct from Federal Reserve quantitative easing and do not automatically increase the money supply. Still, mounting US debt and interest costs have intensified debate over fiscal discipline, inflation and the dollar’s long-term purchasing power, prompting some investors to seek scarce assets as protection against currency debasement.

Robert Kiyosaki, author of “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” criticized the Treasury’s expansion of longer-dated debt buybacks as effectively printing “fake money” to support the bond market. He said the policy could further erode the dollar’s value and urged investors to hold Bitcoin, gold and silver as hedges against inflation and a broader debt crisis. The cited report did not specify the amount of the expanded purchases or an implementation date.

Years of federal deficit spending have pushed U.S. debt to unprecedented levels, sharpening concern that policymakers may eventually tolerate lower interest rates or greater liquidity to ease refinancing pressures. That prospect underpins the so-called debasement trade, in which investors favor scarce assets such as bitcoin and gold as protection against declining dollar purchasing power. Bitcoin’s haven credentials remain contested, however, because the cryptocurrency has historically traded more like a technology stock than a defensive asset.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Debt to the Penny dataset showed federal debt reaching a record $39.7 trillion on July 24, 2026, with some market observers estimating growth of roughly $7 billion a day. CoinDesk on July 27 cited LondonCryptoClub as saying fiscal dominance could increasingly constrain Federal Reserve policy. Bitcoin traded above $65,000, while Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok warned that a debt-to-GDP ratio exceeding 120% leaves Washington with limited fiscal room to respond to a recession.

Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio has long viewed gold as a core hedge against sovereign debt and geopolitical risks. He says gold is the world’s second-largest central bank reserve asset after fiat currencies. Bitcoin lacks central bank backing and remains closely correlated with technology stocks, making it difficult to establish as a long-term store of value.

As of July 19, 2026, Dalio had again argued that Bitcoin transactions can be monitored, offer insufficient privacy and face the risk of being compromised by quantum computing. Central banks therefore would not include BTC in their core reserves, he said. Dalio stressed that “there is only one gold,” while cryptocurrency advocates dismissed his arguments as outdated and pointed to Bitcoin’s recent outperformance against gold as a hedge.