At the end of @RayDalio’s long-term debt cycle, the only true place to hide is bitcoin. When fiat is on the brink of major devaluation and interest rates, after being pushed to zero, begin rising, nearly every asset class comes under pressure—except for hard money. Fiat currency: By design, fiat is meant to lose value over time. When governments are forced to inflate away debt, holding cash guarantees a loss of purchasing power. It is the worst place to seek refuge. Real estate: Many see real estate as an inflation hedge, but it has serious flaws. It’s a highly leveraged asset class—most buyers put 20% down and borrow 80%, effectively going 5x long. Near-zero interest rates fueled an unsustainable price surge. But as rates rise, buyers can afford less, demand slows, and real estate appreciation becomes far more constrained relative to hard money like bitcoin. Equities: Stock prices are deeply tied to interest rates through discounting future cash flows. When rates are low, valuations soar. But as rates rise, valuations compress, and companies relying on cheap debt face higher borrowing costs, further straining earnings. Fixed income: Rising rates hit bonds the hardest. Bond prices move inversely to interest rates, meaning as rates rise, bondholders see their investments lose value. Gold: While gold is one of Ray Dalio’s preferred assets during this period, it has flaws. Bitcoin is now directly competing with gold, as seen in the inflows to bitcoin ETFs versus gold ETFs. Bitcoin also has significantly more upside due to its smaller market size. More importantly, bitcoin possesses superior monetary properties—it’s scarcer, more portable, more durable, and more verifiable than gold. As a result, gold is likely to lose market share to bitcoin over time. Bitcoin: Unlike these traditional assets, bitcoin has a fixed supply, and it is rarely bought with significant leverage—because its extreme volatility quickly wipes out overleveraged speculators. In a world where fiat is being debased and leverage-driven assets are crumbling under rising rates, bitcoin stands alone as the hardest money.