The third richest man in Mexico, Ricardo Salinas Pliego, has revealed that he owns bitcoin.
He confirmed it himself with a tweet in which he wrote:
“Today I recommend THE BITCOIN PATTERN, this is the best and most important book for understanding Bitcoin.
Bitcoin protects the citizens from expropriation by the government.
Many people ask me if I have bitcoin: yes. I have 10% of my liquid portfolio invested”.
Hoy les recomiendo EL PATRÓN BITCOIN, este libro es el mejor y más importante para entender #Bitcoin.
El Bitcoin protege al ciudadano de la expropiación gubernamental.
Muchas personas me preguntan si tengo bitcoins, SÍ. Tengo el 10% de mi portafolio líquido invertido en el 😌💵 pic.twitter.com/6LtFVCXvuA
— Don Ricardo Salinas Pliego (@RicardoBSalinas) November 17, 2020
Ricardo Salinas Pliego is the founder and chairman of Grupo Salinas, a group of companies involved in telecommunications, media, financial services and shops.
His assets are estimated at $13.2 billion, making him the third richest man in Mexico, and the 110th richest in the world. However, it is not known exactly how much of this wealth is made up of liquid funds, so it is not possible to calculate what the 10% he holds in BTC corresponds to.
Grupo Salinas was founded as a family-owned furniture manufacturing company founded in 1906 by Ricardo’s great-grandfather, Benjamin Salinas, and called Salinas & Rocha. In 1950 the company became Grupo Elektra, and in 1987 Ricardo became its CEO.
The company then refocused on household appliances, electronics and furniture, expanding mainly into Mexico’s large consumer market for lower-middle-income, also providing credit sales and financial products.
In 2002, Grupo Elektra acquired a banking licence and became the largest consumer financing company in the country.
Expansion continued with Banco Azteca, and Azteca, one of the world’s two largest producers of Spanish-language television programmes.
In 2003 Salinas also acquired the country’s first mobile phone company, later sold to AT&T, and today offers Internet, television and telephone services through Total Play and Enlace.
Ricardo Salinas Pliego’s opinion on currencies and Bitcoin
Ricardo Salinas Pliego believes that the fiat currencies issued by the government are worth practically nothing, with annual inflation in Mexico almost always above 4%. Moreover, the value of the Mexican Peso tends to follow that of the US dollar, so inflationary assumptions regarding the greenback will easily have similar consequences also on the national currency of the country.
In the past, it was mainly gold that protected the value of savings from inflation, but evidently, more and more people who hold a lot of liquidity prefer to bet on bitcoin as well.
