Mexican magnate Ricardo Salinas dedicates 70% of his portfolio to Bitcoin

What madness! Ricardo Salinas, that Mexican billionaire who fascinates and confounds me equally, has just revealed that he has 70% of his investment portfolio in Bitcoin. Seventy percent! And the rest, 30%, he has in gold and gold miners.

I have always thought that Salinas has something of a rebellious visionary. With an estimated fortune of about $5.8 billion, this guy has been showing his support for cryptocurrencies for years while most traditional magnates looked at them with suspicion. Do you remember when in 2021 he said he was working to make his bank the first in Mexico to accept BTC? That's where it all started.

The most striking thing is to see how much their exposure has increased. It went from 10% in 2020 to the current 70%. In his interview with Bloomberg, this man made it clear that he does not own a single bond and the only stocks he has are those of his own companies. Is this brilliance or pure recklessness?

And while he strongly bets on the digital future, he is at war with the Mexican government. He is accused of owing more than 63 billion pesos ( around 3 billion dollars ) in taxes. He, of course, denies everything and talks about accounting errors and double billing. Typical of the powerful, right? They always find explanations to avoid paying what they owe.

What also seems suspicious to me is their plan to take Grupo Elektra, their flagship, out of the stock market. They say it is to reorganize and strengthen their diverse assets, but I wonder if it is not to operate with less public scrutiny. The company has had a turbulent history, especially after its battle in 2012 with the Mexican stock exchange, when they were accused of manipulating the number of floating shares.

Despite everything, there is something fascinating about seeing how this entrepreneur challenges conventions. Luciano Pascoe, spokesperson for the Salinas Group, described the decision to exit the stock market as "very brave," arguing that speculation had been undervaluing the company.

In a recent video on his personal blog, Salinas avoided directly discussing this stock market exclusion and simply thanked his employees for a "great year." He mentioned that "despite the complicated environment and the thousands of problems that always exist, we keep moving forward."

Is Salinas a visionary genius betting on the digital future or just another eccentric rich person playing with his fortune? Time will tell if his massive bet on Bitcoin was a master move or a colossal mistake.