Collapse of World Order Puts Permissionless Money in the Spotlight

Ray Dalio warned that the post-World War II order has “officially broken down,” with the world now sliding into what he bluntly calls a “law of the jungle” phase, where power, not rules, decides outcomes, and crypto investors are using the moment to renew the case for assets designed to operate outside state control.

In his latest article on X describing both internal and external disorder, the Bridgewater Associates founder wrote that great powers are now locked in a persistent “prisoner’s dilemma.” They must either escalate or look weak across trade, technology, capital flows and, increasingly, military flashpoints, making what he calls “stupid wars” frighteningly easy to trigger. 

That external disorder tends to collide with internal stress, Dalio said. When economies are under strain and wealth gaps are wide, governments reliably reach for higher taxes and “big increases in the supply of money” that devalue existing claims rather than pushing explicit defaults.

That combination is exactly the type of environment in which apolitical assets like Bitcoin (BTC) and gold have typically thrived. The pitch from crypto advocates is straightforward: as governments lean more heavily on sanctions, asset freezes and money creation, investors will look harder at assets that can be held and transferred without relying on a bank or a state-backed payments system.

Liquidity data fuels hard assets

Data from Econovis found that global broad money climbed from $26 trillion in 2000 to an estimated $142 trillion in 2025.

According to ex-fund manager Asymmetry, every major BTC rally has coincided with M2 expansion and “the next wave is building.”

Gold prices have also generally tracked the US M2 money supply, reflecting the precious metal’s status as a traditional hedge against monetary expansion.

Related: ‘No privacy’ CBDCs will come, warns billionaire Ray Dalio

A bull case for neutral money

Dalio’s framework also emphasizes how states use asset freezes, capital market bans, and embargoes as standard tactics, showing how dependent traditional savings and payments are on political discretion and jurisdictional risk, and placing the case for an apolitical, borderless money front and center.

Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley captured the crypto community’s thoughts in a single comment, saying, “Is anyone working on global, permissionless, apolitical monetary assets and financial rails?? Could be important.” 

Asymmetry made a similar point from the portfolio side, arguing that the setup Dalio is describing, a fracturing world order layered on top of what macro analysts such as Lyn Alden or Luke Gromen call fiscal dominance, where government borrowing needs effectively dictate central bank policy, is among the “most structurally bullish backdrop for hard assets in 80 years.” 

Still, Dalio’s warning is not a direct forecast for Bitcoin, and the investment case for crypto remains sensitive to a wide range of factors, including interest rates, regulation, market liquidity and risk appetite. What his latest comments do provide is a clear macro narrative that many in the crypto market are using to argue that demand for “neutral money” could increase as the world becomes more fractured.

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