Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas allocates 70% of his portfolio to Bitcoin

Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas has revealed that he has allocated 70% of his investment portfolio to Bitcoin. He also added that he has allocated the remaining 30% of his portfolio to Gold.

The entrepreneur, whose net worth is estimated to be roughly $5.8 billion, is a known Bitcoin proponent who on several occasions showed support for the digital asset. The Mexican billionaire disclosed in 2021 that he was working to make his bank the first in Mexico to accept BTC.

Salinas allocates 70% of his investment portfolio to BTC

Ricardo Salinas revealed in an interview with Bloomberg that he has allocated 70% of his investment portfolio in BTC. The outspoken billionaire also said that 30% of his investment portfolio was in gold and gold miners.

Mexico’s third-richest individual said that he doesn’t possess stakes in bonds, and the only stocks he owned were those that belong to his group of companies.

“I’ve got about 70% in Bitcoin-related exposure and 30% in gold and gold miners. I don’t have a single bond and I don’t have any other stocks except my own.”

–Ricardo Salinas.

He also highlighted that the 70% figure was notably far above the 10% he had allocated to the digital asset back in 2020.

The CEO of TV Azteca, Mexico’s number two TV broadcaster, is also facing several tax cases with the Mexican government. The government has accused Salinas of owing over 63 billion pesos ($3 billion) in taxes, which has initiated court cases between both parties.

The Mexican businessman denied the allegations by the government and argued that there might be an error. He maintained that the computation of his alleged back taxes was due to an accounting error that resulted in his double billing. The billionaire is now contesting the penalties that he accrued while the case is ongoing. Salinas acknowledged that he was willing to pay his dues, but he would not pay them twice.

Salinas plans to delist Grupo Elektra

The Mexican entrepreneur also revealed that he plans to delist Grupo Elektra, his flagship company. He highlighted that the move came after years of fighting to defend the share price of the flagship and a months-long trading halt in 2024. Salinas also argued that the delisting would enable him to run his company as he sees fit and without any public pressure.

Elektra noted that the move was aimed to reorganize and strengthen the company’s extensive and diverse assets and “to find tools to maximize its real value.” He also revealed that he’ll get the delisting done by around May, in part because only 0.3% of shares remain outstanding.

The company was widely covered by analysts in the wake of Salinas’ 2012 battle with Mexico’s stock exchange. At the time, the exchange wanted to remove the firm’s stock from the benchmark IPC index due to allegations that the company was manipulating the amount of floating shares in the market. The firm won a court order to guarantee its position, which locked in sustained flows from exchange-traded funds.

Elektra’s stock price surged over the following years, reaching an all-time high of 1,631 pesos in June of 2021. At the time, the firm was the country’s most expensive by far even though trading volumes were a fraction of other companies.

Luciano Pascoe, the head of Salinas’ news network ADN 40 and a spokesman for Grupo Salinas, said that the decision to exit the Mexican stock market was a “very brave decision.” He also argued that speculation had been putting the firm below its real value for a long time and that was why it left the stock market. Pascoe believes that the company was in a more solid position for a more prosperous future.

The Mexican businessman posted a video on his personal blog where he avoided directly addressing the delisting and thanked his employees for a “great year.” He said that despite a complicated environment and despite the thousands of problems that always exist, “we move ahead.”

Cryptopolitan Academy: Coming Soon - A New Way to Earn Passive Income with DeFi in 2025. Learn More