Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas has gone all-in on Bitcoin. The founder and chairman of Grupo Salinas, which controls Banco Azteca and TV Azteca, revealed that roughly 70% of his investment portfolio is now in Bitcoin — up from just 10% in 2020. He even persuaded his wife to mortgage her home and take out a loan to buy the digital asset.
From 10% to 70%
Salinas traces his skepticism of fiat money to the end of the gold standard under President Richard Nixon. That belief has only deepened. Over six years, he shifted the bulk of his personal holdings into Bitcoin, convinced that it's superior to both fiat currency and gold. “Bitcoin is unseizable and transferable instantly anywhere in the world,” he has said, calling it an “asymmetrical bet to the upside” as more people discover it.
The $150 million loan that wasn't
In 2021, Salinas borrowed $150 million against $416 million worth of shares in Grupo Elektra — the company he took over from his father in 1987 — to buy more Bitcoin. The lender, Astor Capital Fund, turned out to be fraudulent. The incident didn't shake his conviction. Around the same time, he publicly announced plans to have Banco Azteca accept Bitcoin. Mexican financial regulators issued warnings and the plan stalled, but Salinas continues to hold.
Why Bitcoin over gold?
Salinas sees Bitcoin as a modern store of value that doesn't rely on any government or central bank. He points to London property as an example: a home that cost 4,000 Bitcoin in 2016 would now cost fewer than 30 Bitcoin. That kind of price appreciation, he argues, makes Bitcoin a better hedge than gold or real estate. He's not alone in his optimism — he predicts Bitcoin could reach $1 million, echoing targets from other crypto advocates.
Salinas hasn't signaled any plans to reduce his position. As chairman of Grupo Salinas, he continues to run businesses across banking, media, and retail. But his personal bet on Bitcoin is now one of the largest known allocations by a major public figure. Whether Mexican regulators will revisit his 2021 proposal to accept Bitcoin at Banco Azteca remains an open question.
