Mexican Billionaire Ricardo Salinas Says His Banking Business Might Soon Start Accepting Bitcoin

Billionaire investors across the globe are keen to join the Bitcoin bandwagon. Bitcoin proponent and Mexico’s third-richest person Ricardo Salinas Pliego said that he is currently working to make his banking business the first to start accepting Bitcoins.

The announcement came as Salinas was responding to a tweet from Bitcoin evangelist and MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor. Salinas, with an estimated fortune of $15.8 billion owns the giant Banco Azteca banking business."Me and my bank (Banco Azteca) are working to be the first bank in Mexico to accept #Bitcoin,” said Salinas.

He further revealed that he had invested 10% of his liquid portfolio in Bitcoin last year. Besides, Salinas also believes that all investors should study Bitcoin and the future of this cryptocurrency.

In a recent interview, Salinas said: “I have invested a lot of time studying Bitcoin (BTC) and I thinks it’s an asset that should be part of every investor’s portfolio. It’s an asset that has an international value and traded with enormous liquidity at a global level”.

He further added that the key part about Bitcoin is its finite supply of 21 million. The Mexican billionaire believes that all fiat currencies are fraud. He also calls the USD a joke saying that the monetary supply of the currency went to the moon. He said that if he sees a 30-year time horizon, he would take Bitcoin and hold it.

A number of Latin American countries have shown interest in Bitcoin adoption post El Salvador passing its Bitcoin law earlier this month. Last week, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele announced a $30 Bitcoin airdrop program to boost BTC usage in the country.

Mexican lawmakers have openly proposed Bitcoin adoption in the country in recent times. Earlier this month, Eduardo Murat Hinojosa, the federal government representative of Mexico said: “I will be promoting and proposing a legal framework for crypto coins in Mexico’s lower house. We are going to lead the shift to crypto and fintech in Mexico”.

Apart from Mexico, other Latin American nations like Paraguay are also considering making Bitcoin a legal tender in the country.

A strong support for Bitcoin from the Latin American nations come amid their faltering economy due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This support comes at a time when the BTC price has been moving sideways over the last few weeks. At press time, BTC is 3% up trading at $34,218 with a market cap of $640 billion.