By Shelly Melancon (Switzerland)
65-year-old Mexican businessman and billionaire, Ricardo Salinas Pliego has criticised fiat currencies and called them fraud. Ricardo Pliego is the founder and CEO of Group Salinas, a mexican-based business conglomerate with interests in retail stores, media, telecommunications and financial services. The mexican billionaire said the US dollar is a joke.
In an interview on Monday, Ricardo lamented over the inflation rate in the South American region with countries like Venezuela and Argentina already experiencing the evil twin of devaluation and inflation. The billionaire further said when he started his career in 1981, the Mexican Peso was 20 to $1; now 20,000 Mexican Peso is equal to $1. He said the situation is the same in the East African country, Zimbabwe, which is currently experiencing hyperinflation. Ricardo is the third-richest person in Mexico and is estimated to be worth $13.6 billion.
Bitcoin Has A Finite Supply, Says Ricardo Salinas
Ricardo hailed Bitcoin and its finite supply, which currently stands at 21 million. In contrast, he asserted that the US dollar is a fraud. He said he has done a lot of research on Bitcoin and has 10% of his portfolio invested in the top crypto asset. According to the billionaire, Bitcoin is an asset that has global value and enormous liquidity, and that every investor should have the asset in his portfolio.
The billionaire criticized Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies which do not have exact supply. He said it is easy for the creators of these cryptos to generate more supply and at the end of the day, people’s investments in them depreciate. However, Ethereum’s latest improvement proposal (EIP1559) which will be implemented before the launch of Ethereum 2.0 will come with a deflationary mechanism which burns transaction fees, thereby reducing the circulating supply of the crypto. When asked what asset he would prefer among Gold, silver, Bolivars, Argentine Pesos, Mexican Pesos, the billionaire was quoted as saying, ” No Pesos, no paper bills. I would prefer Bitcoin.”
Billionaire Ricardo has been involved in a number of controversies. In 2005, the Mexican businessman was charged with an allegation of tax evasion by the US and Mexican SEC. He was also involved in controversy when his TV station, TV Azteca decided to air a football match rather than a presidential debate. The billionaire had defended himself by saying people preferred watching the football match to the presidential debate.
Mexico Seeks to Introduce Bitcoin Bill
Ricardo’s comments have come at a time when Mexico is looking to join El Salvador in its landmark Bitcoin law. El Salvador recently made Bitcoin a legal tender alongside and has gone ahead to call for collaborations on how they can implement a framework for it. This week, President Nayib Bukele had announced that citizens would receive $30 worth of Bitcoin each as the country goes ahead to mine Bitcoin with volcanoes. Charles Hoskinson, Cardano’s founder, has indicated interest in working with the Latin American country. Paraguay is also looking to implement a Bitcoin law next month.
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