Mexico’s second-richest man invests 10% of his liquid portfolio in Bitcoin

Published at: Nov. 18, 2020

Ricardo Salinas Pliego, the second-wealthiest man in Mexico, has revealed that 10% of his “liquid portfolio” is invested in Bitcoin (BTC).

The billionaire shared a video captured in “a Latin country” depicting banks throwing out garbage bags filled with paper money into a dumpster. He asserted that “paper money is worth nothing,” adding: “That is why it is always good to diversify our investment portfolio.”

The video appears to show bags of Venezuelan bolivars being thrown out, including 10,000 bolivar notes issued in 2016 and 2017 before the country redenominated its banknotes in 2018 amid an escalating inflation crisis.

Three hours later, Pliego then tweeted a recommendation for the book The Bitcoin Standard, asserting that “Bitcoin protects the citizen from government expropriation” and revealing his cryptocurrency investment:

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

— Ricardo Salinas Pliego (@RicardoBSalinas) November 17, 2020

According to a translation provided by Google, the tweet states:

“Today I recommend THE BITCOIN PATTERN, this book is the best and most important to understand Bitcoin. Bitcoin protects the citizen from government expropriation. Many people ask me if I have Bitcoins, YES. I have 10% of my liquid portfolio invested.”

Crypto Twitter reacted gleefully to the news that the world’s 166th-wealthiest citizen is significantly invested in Bitcoin, with Kraken’s Dan Held proclaiming , “The institutional herd is stampeding.”

Pliego responded to Held, saying that institutional adoption had manifested gradually since the launch of Grayscale’s Bitcoin Investment Trust in 2016.

The billionaire also noted that the remaining 90% of his liquid portfolio is invested “in precious metals miners.”

Pliego was born in 1955 in Mexico City and is the founder and chairman of Grupo Salinas, which owns businesses in media, telecommunications, finance and retail.

Salinas is also the chairman of TV Azteca, the second-largest producer of Spanish-language programming worldwide, and the second-largest media company in Mexico.

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