Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego just declared 10% of his portfolio is now tied up in bitcoin.
Announced in a tweet on Wednesday, Mexico’s second-wealthiest man responded to questions that “many people” ask him about bitcoin, saying: “YES. I have 10% of my liquid portfolio invested.”
“Bitcoin protects the citizen from government expropriation,” Pliego added as he recommended “El Patron Bitcoin” – a book that is “the best and most important to understand #Bitcoin.”
The other 90% of Pliego’s investments are tied up “in precious metals miners,” the billionaire explained in a reply to Dan Held, the Kraken crypto exchange’s growth lead.
Latin American countries, namely Venezuela, have been plagued by hyperinflation in recent years leading to a situation reminiscent of Germany’s 1920’s hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic.
Investors looking to protect themselves from “government expropriation” and inflation have historically turned to alternative assets like gold to hedge against fiat currency devaluation. Now bitcoin looks to be increasingly finding a place as a digital alternative.
Hours before posting his bitcoin tweet, the Mexican billionaire had posted another tweet decrying government-issued fiat as being “worth nothing” and noting that it is always “good to diversify” ones investments.
Pliego is the founder and chairman of Grupo Salinas, a collection of companies with stakes in telecommunications, media, financial services, and retail stores, per Wikipedia.