Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego, whose net worth is estimated at roughly $5 billion, has allocated approximately 70% of his investment portfolio to bitcoin. According to reports from CoinDesk, this allocation is unusually large by conventional portfolio-management standards, where wealth advisers typically recommend limiting exposure to highly volatile assets. Salinas, whose company Grupo Elektra is one of Mexico's largest business groups expanding across retail, banking, telecommunications and media, has such strong conviction on bitcoin that he advised his wife to mortgage her home and buy more of it.
Salinas points to bitcoin's long-term appreciation relative to real estate as evidence for his investment thesis. As reported by CoinDesk, in January 2016, the price of bitcoin hovered around $400. A house in Central London sold for an average price of $1.6 million or 4,000 bitcoin. With home prices remaining basically unchanged ten years later, that same purchase would require less than 30 bitcoin. Salinas believes this comparison illustrates why he believes bitcoin outperforms traditional stores of value such as real estate over the long term, calling it an 'asymmetrical bet to the upside'.
Salinas traces his deep belief in fiat devaluation to a time before digital currency existed, when then-President Richard Nixon severed the U.S. dollar's direct convertibility into gold, ending the gold standard. According to CoinDesk, his family has long been involved in the gold and silver mining business and would've been impacted by the abolition of the gold standard. The family's dinner table conversations reinforced concerns about governments printing money, with gold's purchasing power increasing by about 500% from July 1976 to today, while the U.S. dollar buys only about 15% of what it did in 1976.
Despite bitcoin's extreme volatility, Salinas remains convinced it is one of the most attractive opportunities for investors. When pressed about predictions from other bitcoin bulls such as Cathie Wood and Michael Saylor, who say bitcoin could eventually reach seven figures, Salinas relented, stating 'So it will be a million dollars. I just don't know when.' As reported by CoinDesk, he believes the more people find out about bitcoin, the more demand there will be, making it an attractive long-term investment opportunity.
