Bridgewater Associates CEO Ray Dalio warned the soaring cryptocurrency could be banned as gold was in 1934. The Gold Reserves Act of 1934 banned Americans from using gold as money.
Mr Dalio said: “Every country treasures its monopoly on controlling the supply and demand.
“They don’t want other monies to be operating or competing, because things can get out of control.
“So I think that it would be very likely that you will have it, under a certain set of circumstances, outlawed the way gold was outlawed.”
However, Mr Dalio acknowledged the success of Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency has “proven itself over the last 10 years”.
He continued: “Bitcoin has proven itself over the last 10 years, it hasn’t been hacked.
“It’s by and large, therefore, worked on an operation basis.
“It has built a significant following.
“It is an alternative, in a sense, store hold of wealth.
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The cryptocurrency expert said: “If the government bans cryptocurrency, it will be impossible to enforce because it does not have the infrastructure to execute the ban.
“This will give rise to a parallel shadow economy and this is a fallout the government would not want.”
In January this year, Mr Dalio warned governments would not let Bitcoin win, claiming they will not allow serious competitors to their money issuance.
He said at the time: “I believe Bitcoin is one hell of an invention.
“To have invented a new type of money via a system that is programmed into a computer and that has worked for around 10 years and is rapidly gaining popularity as both a type of money and a store hold of wealth is an amazing accomplishment.”
Mr Dalio’s warning comes just days after tech entrepreneur Elon Musk revealed people will be able to start buying Tesla cars using Bitcoin.
Mr Musk tweeted: “You can now buy a Tesla with Bitcoin.
“Tesla is using only internal and open source software and operates Bitcoin nodes directly.
“Bitcoin paid to Tesla will be retained as Bitcoin, not converted to fiat currency.”
He said Bitcoin will be “available outside” the US later this year.