Despite the decreasing prices of Bitcoin, Mexican Billionaire Salinas remains optimistic about the world’s largest cryptocurrency and aims to establish Mexico’s first Bitcoin-accepting bank. Salinas Aims To Establish Mexico’s First Bitcoin-Accepting Bank Mexico’s third-richest man, Ricardo Salinas Pliego, tweeted this morning that the bank he founded, Banco Azteca, will be the first in the nation to accept Bitcoin. Salinas is the CEO of Grupo Salinas, the vast company that owns the bank he established 19 years ago. If he is successful in convincing Banco Azteca to accept Bitcoin, the bank will join a tiny but increasing list of banks that are dealing in Bitcoin. With about 16 million savings accounts and 19 million credit accounts, the bank claims to be one of the largest in Mexico. Until 2019, the bank’s headquarters were in El Salvador, which had recently proclaimed Bitcoin legal money. In A Twitter Conversation With Michael Saylor, He Reveals His Plans Salinas’ post was in reaction to Michael Saylor, a cloud computing specialist turned Bitcoin bull who had shared a week-old video of the Mexican millionaire praising Bitcoin and labeling fiat currency a “fake.” In the video, in an interview with Jose Rodriguez of Bitcoin ATM operator Chainbytes, Salinas stated that Bitcoin is “an asset that should be in the portfolio of each investor” and that it “has value and an international market where it is exchanged with great liquidity worldwide.” Salinas then referred to Dogecoin and other cryptocurrencies as “shitcoins.” Salinas, like Michael Saylor, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and Skybridge’s Anthony Scaramucci, updated his Twitter bio to ‘Bitcoin’ at the beginning of the year. In November of last year, Salinas tweeted that he had put 10% of his liquid assets in Bitcoin. Salinas, Who Are You? According to Forbes, Salinas has a net worth of $12.9 billion, making him Mexico’s third-richest man and the 166th richest person in the world. Salinas gained his wealth being the founder and head of Grupo Salinas, a retail and media empire. The majority of his income stems from his ownership of Grupo Elektra, a home appliance manufacturer that utilizes Banco Azteca to market loans to Mexicans in their lower-middle classes. Salinas is no stranger to disputes. The US Securities and Exchange Commission sued TV Azteca, a Salinas company, seeking to conceal Salinas’ $109 million gain through the unreported sale of TV Azteca shares in 2005. Salinas agreed to pay SEC $7.5 million in fines and compensation in September 2006, when the matter was resolved. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he posted photos from an extravagant boat party, while publicly trivializing the dangers of COVID and keeping a Grupo Salinas contact center in Mexico City open in defiance of lockdown protocols. The virus killed three employees.
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