Bitcoin rallies 23% amid US debt policy concerns

Bitcoin just posted one of its sharpest weekly moves in recent memory, climbing roughly 23% from the low $63,000 range to the upper $70,000s and flirting with the $80K level. The catalyst wasn’t a spot ETF approval or a protocol upgrade. It was something far more old-school: the US government’s balance sheet.

Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates and one of the most closely watched macro investors alive, warned on August 21 that the US could face a full-blown debt crisis within three years absent major policy shifts. US federal debt crossed the $40 trillion mark on August 18, hitting $40.047 trillion.

Dalio’s playbook: gold, a bit of Bitcoin, fewer bonds

Dalio’s advice was blunt. He told investors to cut their bond exposure and allocate 10-15% of portfolios to gold. Bitcoin, he suggested, deserves “a bit” of space alongside it.

His reasoning centers on what he calls traditional debt-cycle dynamics. The US faces refinancing needs of approximately $10 trillion, with annual interest costs approaching $1 trillion.

Dalio framed both gold and Bitcoin as non-government-produced assets, the kind that tend to hold up when currency supply-and-demand dynamics get messy. He didn’t extend the same endorsement to other digital assets.