Paul Tudor Jones Tamps Down Bitcoin Bullishness

"I still have a minor allocation to bitcoin," said Paul Tudor Jones during a CNBC appearance on Monday morning.

It wasn't exactly a rousing endorsement of the crypto given Jones' major bullishness two-plus years ago. At the time, in mid-2020, the hedge fund giant said he had allocated 1%-2% of his multibillion-dollar portfolio to bitcoin (BTC).

He later said he could see allocating as much as 5% of his assets to bitcoin if the U.S. Federal Reserve continued on its path of monetary debasement. His remarks at that time helped pump crypto prices – then already in a bull market – even higher.

His milquetoast remarks on digital assets today were hardly noticed, with the price of bitcoin remaining mired in the low-$19,000 area.

In 2020, of course, the Fed was in the midst of any number of stimulus schemes aimed at keeping the economy and financial system afloat alongside the COVID-19 lockdowns. Today, the U.S. central bank is in the exact opposite mode as it rapidly tightens monetary policy to fight the inflation surge it helped create.

"Inflation is a bit like toothpaste," said Jones this morning. "Once you get it out of the tube, it’s hard to get it back in." The Fed, he said, "is furiously trying to wash that taste out of [its] mouth ... If we go into recession, that has really negative consequences for a variety of assets."

While Jones said he continues to believe bitcoin will have value, he concluded that cash is the place to be as long as the Fed can be counted on to follow through on its pledge to bring inflation back to the 2% target.