Bitcoin Gets Support From Mexico's Third-Richest Person; Billionaire Follows Elon Musk's Move

Ricardo Salinas Pliego, Mexico's third-richest person, has followed Elon Musk’s lead and added Bitcoin to his Twitter bio.

First noticed by Jay Hao, the CEO of cryptocurrency exchange OKEX, the chairman of Grupo Salinas, a Mexican conglomerate, put "#Bitcoin" in his Twitter bio for his more than 846,000 followers to see.

Salinas once claimed that Bitcoin was his “best investment ever.” He first bought Bitcoin at $200 in 2016 and sold it at $17,000 during the bull run of 2017. He bought Bitcoin again just before it surged to new all-time highs.

The billionaire confirmed in November that he has 10% of his liquid portfolio in Bitcoin while the rest are in “precious metal miners,” Cointelegraph reported.

In November last year, Salinas shared a video of bags of Venezuelan bolivars being thrown out, referencing the hyperinflation happening in Venezuela. After he shared the video, he recommended on Twitter "The Bitcoin Standard," which he said is the most important book to understand the cryptocurrency.

Salinas is just one of the billionaires and institutions that have revealed that a portion of their funds is invested into Bitcoin. In 2020, institutional money flowing into Bitcoin was one of the major narratives surrounding the dominant cryptocurrency.

Companies like MicroStrategy invested a portion of their reserves into Bitcoin, while institutions like Guggenheim, Ruffer and MassMutual said they had a low percentage of their portfolio allocated into Bitcoin.

While SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk did not say if he has invested more into Bitcoin, he said that he is a supporter of the cryptocurrency. Musk has since removed the word “Bitcoin” from his Twitter bio.

The institutional inflow has been correlated with the increasing Bitcoin prices. This, analysts said, is what differentiates the bull run in 2017 from the current parabolic rally. The 2017 mania was driven by retail investors wanting quick profits, while in 2020, institutional investors will not be shaken off by mere 10% fluctuations of the Bitcoin price.