Ricardo Salinas Pliego backs bitcoin over real estate with 70% portfolio
Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego says he is a bitcoin maximalist and holds about 70% of his investment portfolio in bitcoin. He argues fiat currencies steadily lose purchasing power, making bitcoin a scarcer, long-term store of value.
Salinas told CoinDesk he even convinced his wife to mortgage their home and take a loan to buy bitcoin. He also said investors should consider converting part of their home equity into bitcoin exposure.
To support the claim, Salinas compared bitcoin’s performance to real estate. He cited that in January 2016 bitcoin traded around $400, while a Central London home sold for about $1.6 million (roughly 4,000 bitcoin then). With home prices largely flat over a decade, he said the same property would have required under 30 bitcoin later—illustrating bitcoin’s outperformance versus traditional property as a store of value.
On valuation expectations, Salinas was reluctant to give a short-term bitcoin price target, but he agreed with other bulls’ “seven-figure” framing by saying bitcoin could reach $1 million, without specifying when.
The article also ties his stance to family history in gold and distrust of post-gold-standard fiat money, referencing concerns after Richard Nixon ended the dollar’s gold convertibility.
Bullish
Salinas’ comments are unlikely to move spot BTC in isolation, but they reinforce a “scarce asset vs fiat” narrative and can sustain broader retail/institutional buy-the-dip sentiment. High-conviction public allocation (70% of his portfolio) tends to act as bullish messaging, similar to prior high-profile crypto backers who framed BTC as a hedge against fiat debasement; historically, such narratives often correlate with periods where BTC sentiment remains supported even during volatility.
Short term, the direct impact is mostly sentiment-driven: traders may see incremental upside bias, especially if the market is already trying to recover from downturns. However, his lack of a short-term price target reduces the risk of immediate hype-driven selling/buying.
Long term, the “BTC over real estate” argument may strengthen the store-of-value thesis and keep demand narratives intact, particularly among investors with exposure to housing equity. If additional influential figures adopt similar strategies, it could support structural demand expectations for BTC. Net effect: mildly bullish for market psychology, with limited immediate fundamental change.