Bitcoin as a personal hedge, not a side project
Ricardo Salinas Pliego, founder and chairman of Grupo Salinas, told CoinDesk he has “approximately 70%” of his investment portfolio in bitcoin. He also said he’s aiming at $1 million as a possible bitcoin price outcome, though he won’t guess timing.
This is not a casual purchase. Salinas has built the argument for BTC around a mix of philosophy and lived experience. In a CoinDesk interview included in Bitcoin Magazine’s report, he links his view on fiat devaluation to the end of the U.S. dollar’s gold convertibility during Richard Nixon’s era. Salinas frames that shift as a “fiat fraud,” echoing how his family’s long involvement in gold and silver mining shaped his “conversation at the family table.”
In his telling, bitcoin’s key edge is that it is “unseizable” and can move “instantly worldwide.” He also argues gold has been “subject to governmental intervention,” making BTC preferable to either fiat or the gold standard.
From 10% in 2020 to 70% now
The allocation did not arrive in a single leap. Bitcoin Magazine reports Salinas’ bitcoin exposure grew from 10% of his investment portfolio in 2020 to 70% today. That five plus year ramp tracks a tightening belief rather than a short-term trade.
The same piece ties that conviction to earlier attempts to get bitcoin into mainstream finance. In June 2021, Salinas announced he was working with Banco Azteca to make it the first Mexican bank to accept bitcoin. Bitcoin Magazine says regulators responded quickly with warnings about virtual assets. The banking push stalled.
A $150M loan, a fraud, and no retreat
Salinas didn’t just talk. Bitcoin Magazine describes a 2021 plan to put $400 million into bitcoin, complicated by insufficient liquid cash. He borrowed against Grupo Elektra shares, pledging $416 million in collateral to raise a $150 million loan.
Then came the hard lesson. The lender was reportedly a fraud. The firm, Astor Capital Fund, used a CEO name “Thomas Astor-Mellon,” and Bitcoin Magazine says he introduced himself on a video call from what appeared to be a yacht, but had prior convictions for forging prescriptions and stealing jewelry.
Despite that episode, Salinas kept pressing his BTC thesis. At Bitcoin 2022, Bitcoin Magazine says he delivered a keynote address using his “fiat fraud” framing for centralized institutions that he argues undermine purchasing power.
He put the point in personal terms, telling the crowd it’s one thing to understand a theoretical problem and another to have “lived it in your skin,” as quoted by Bitcoin Magazine.
“Mortgage the house” meets housing as collateral logic
Salinas went further than allocating from excess capital. Bitcoin Magazine reports he convinced his wife to mortgage their home and take a loan to buy bitcoin.
He argued that for many people, the biggest investment is home equity. His prescription was to “transform that into some kind of bitcoin exposure,” adjusting the risk level “to a larger or to a smaller degree,” according to the CoinDesk interview quoted in the Bitcoin Magazine writeup.
He also relied on a simple comparison meant to illustrate scarcity and price sensitivity. Bitcoin Magazine says that in January 2016, bitcoin traded near $400 while the average Central London home cost about $1.6 million, which he equated to roughly 4,000 bitcoin. With London property prices “little changed” a decade later, he claims the same home would be fewer than 30 bitcoin now.
Bitcoin Magazine says he called BTC “an asymmetrical bet to the upside” and argued that more people learning about bitcoin increases demand.
The $1M target, and the missing timeline
Salinas’ million-dollar comment stayed vague on purpose. Bitcoin Magazine says he responded to questions about BTC price predictions from Cathie Wood and Michael Saylor by saying, “So it will be a million dollars,” but adding “I just don’t know when.”
That’s the key detail. Even when a high conviction investor states an upside number, the asset still carries risk and uncertainty. Salinas is explicit about that in his own lack of timing.
What Mexico regulators and the lender scandal tell you
Two separate threads in Bitcoin Magazine’s account matter beyond Salinas’ personal portfolio.
First, his 2021 attempt to get Banco Azteca involved in bitcoin adoption ran into the reality of Mexican regulator warnings. Bitcoin Magazine reports those warnings targeted virtual assets, and the project stalled.
Second, the 2021 Astor Capital Fund fraud shows a different kind of risk: not bitcoin volatility, but counterparties and lending structures. Bitcoin Magazine says the lender had a criminal background and the loan arrangement hinged on large collateral pledges.
Together, they underline the same lesson for readers: bitcoin exposure can be a thesis bet, but execution runs through legal and financial systems that can fail.
Key figures mentioned in the report
| Item | What Salinas said or what happened | Source in report |
|---|---|---|
| Current BTC allocation | About 70% of his investment portfolio in BTC | CoinDesk interview quoted in Bitcoin Magazine |
| Prior BTC allocation | 10% of his investment portfolio in 2020 | Bitcoin Magazine report |
| June 2021 bank plan | Working with Banco Azteca to accept bitcoin | Bitcoin Magazine report |
| Regulator reaction | Mexican regulators issued warnings about virtual assets | Bitcoin Magazine report |
| 2021 planned BTC funding | Wanted to put $400M into bitcoin | Bitcoin Magazine report |
| Loan details | $416M collateral for a $150M loan | Bitcoin Magazine report |
| Lender issue | Astor Capital Fund CEO with prior convictions, alleged fraud | Bitcoin Magazine report |
| Bitcoin price target | Bitcoin could reach $1M | CoinDesk interview quoted in Bitcoin Magazine |
| Timing | “I just don’t know when” | CoinDesk interview quoted in Bitcoin Magazine |
| Home equity plan | He convinced his wife to mortgage the house to buy BTC | CoinDesk interview quoted in Bitcoin Magazine |