Ray Dalio and the Hidden Truths of 2025: The Issue Isn't Artificial Intelligence, but Currency Devaluation

Source: CritpoTendencia Original Title: Ray Dalio y la historia que casi nadie vio en 2025: el problema no fue la IA, fue el dinero Original Link: https://criptotendencia.com/2026/01/18/ray-dalio-y-la-historia-que-casi-nadie-vio-en-2025-el-problema-no-fue-la-ia-fue-el-dinero/ For most of 2025, market focus was on artificial intelligence, tech stocks, and new highs in the stock market. For many, this was the main narrative of the year. However, not everyone was looking in the same direction. For Ray Dalio, the truly important events occurred elsewhere, more quietly and structurally: the loss of value of fiat currency.

The Silent Devaluation of Money

From Dalio’s perspective, 2025 was not only a year of technological progress but also a period when the erosion of purchasing power by money became evident. Ongoing deficits, high debt levels, and expansionary monetary policies ultimately manifested in a historical phenomenon: the rising price of gold as a store of value.

Gold’s rise is not driven by enthusiasm or fashion. When doubts about the monetary system arise, it tends to go up. In this sense, it acts as a thermometer of confidence. When investors seek safe havens, they do so not because they expect extraordinary returns, but because they are trying to protect capital in an environment where money is losing stability.

The Mistake of Focusing Only on Price

The most uncomfortable aspect of this interpretation is that it forces us to reconsider a common confusion in the markets: associating asset appreciation with genuine prosperity. Rising stocks do not necessarily mean a stronger economy. In many cases, it simply reflects more capital chasing the same assets.

Dalio has long maintained that long-term monetary cycles cannot be understood solely by observing nominal prices. What matters are real values, confidence in money, and the system’s long-term ability to sustain that confidence. When this balance weakens, markets seek an anchor.

The Implicit Connection to Bitcoin

Although Dalio explicitly discusses gold, his interpretation inevitably extends to Bitcoin. Both assets respond to the same concern from different angles: the need to protect oneself from currency devaluation. Gold has historically done this; Bitcoin does it from a technological perspective.

This is not a direct comparison or a promise of substitution, but context. Growing interest in hard assets, scarce assets, or assets with clear rules does not happen out of nowhere. When money is no longer seen as a reliable safe haven, it appears.

A Uncomfortable but Necessary Interpretation

From this perspective, 2025 is not only a year of innovation but also a year of revelation. While markets celebrate visible progress, the most important message moves beneath the surface. It does not talk about speed or disruption but about something more fundamental: the fragility of money.

The question this interpretation leaves is not whether artificial intelligence will continue to advance or whether markets can keep rising. The real question is another: what happens when the system that measures value begins to lose its own value?