Mexican billionaire with 70% of his investment portfolio in bitcoin says it’s better than real estate

“For most people, the biggest investment, their nest egg, is their home equity. Find a way to transform that into some kind of bitcoin exposure to a larger or to a smaller degree,” he said. “So then you can bet on the asset of the house appreciating, the house asset appreciating, and the bitcoin asset appreciating.”

Salinas points to bitcoin’s long-term appreciation relative to real estate as evidence for his view. In January 2016, the price of bitcoin hovered around $400. A house in Central London sold for an average price of $1.6 million or 4,000 bitcoin. With home prices remaining basically unchanged ten years later, that same purchase would require less than 30 bitcoin.

For Salinas, that comparison illustrates why he believes bitcoin outperforms traditional stores of value such as real estate over the long term.

“It’s an asymmetrical bet to the upside,” he said. “The more people find out about bitcoin, the more demand there will be.”

The ‘fiat fraud’

Salinas, who has emerged as a potential presidential candidate in Mexico for the 2030 election, traces his deep belief in fiat devaluation to a time long before digital currency even existed. Back when then-President Richard Nixon severed the U.S. dollar’s direct convertibility into gold, ending the gold standard.