Paul Tudor Jones says bitcoin along with gold are looking more attractive these days given the “cataclysmic” fiscal situation in the U.S., likelihood of a recession and new geopolitical turmoil abroad. The legendary hedge fund manager and founder of Tudor Investment told CNBC both assets could take on a bigger role in investors’ portfolios given not only recent events like the war in Israel but also as a result of the Federal Reserve’s inflation-fighting rate hikes, which could tip the economy into a recession and send the stock down 12% and put the U.S. in “an untenable fiscal position.” “More likely than not we’re going to go into recession,” he said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Tuesday. “There’s probably $40 billion worth of buying that has to come into gold at some point between now and if that recession actually occurs. So yeah, I like bitcoin and I like gold right here.” “I think they (bitcoin and gold) probably take on a larger percentage of your portfolio than historically they would because we’re going to go through both a challenging political time here in the United States and … we’ve obviously got a geopolitical situation,” he added. BTC.CM= YTD mountain Bitcoin is having a strong year despite being stuck in a narrow range. Jones began buying bitcoin in 2020 as a hedge against inflation, comparing it at the time to the gold trade in the 1970s. Although bitcoin suffered throughout 2022 as a result of the Fed’s rate hikes, it emerged as an asset that could be helpful in times of political uncertainty amid the ongoing war in Ukraine as well as elections in Turkey more recently. Earlier this year, Jones told CNBC he still holds a small amount of bitcoin and “will always stick with it as a small diversification,” praising it as “the only thing humans can’t adjust the supply in.” Bitcoin is up about 66% year-to-date.
