I. The Evolution of Bitcoin Beliefs Among Latin America's Capital Giants Ricardo Salinas Pliego, head of the Mexican business empire Grupo Salinas, completed a new round of strategic accumulation this week after publicly increasing his Bitcoin holdings for the first time in Q1 2024. According to on-chain data analysis platform Arkham Intelligence, his associated wallet address transferred in 2,170 BTC (approximately $160 million) in a single day on June 18, bringing the Bitcoin share in his investment portfolio to 70%, setting a new record for the proportion of crypto asset allocation among global high-net-worth individuals.
As a capital tycoon controlling a $25 billion business landscape in Latin America, Pliego's strategy has distinct regional characteristics: although Mexico's inflation rate fell from a peak of 12.3% to 7.8% in May 2025, the peso depreciated by 22% against the dollar within the year, forcing local capital to accelerate the search for anti-inflation assets. His analysis published on LinkedIn pointed out: "When the central bank's balance sheet expands at a rate exceeding 300% of GDP growth, the narrative of Bitcoin's scarcity is becoming an economic lifeboat for Latin America."
II. Signals of a Shift from Personal Beliefs to Institutional Paradigms 1. Family Offices' Asset Restructuring Experiments
The investment strategy manual of the Pliego family office shows that its crypto allocation has evolved through three stages: initially allocating 5% in 2022 as a "tech observation position," increasing to 20% after the Bitcoin law was passed in El Salvador in 2023, and completing a 70% aggressive allocation after expectations for Federal Reserve rate cuts rose in 2025. This dual-driven model of "macro cycle + regional characteristics" is being emulated by 17 of the top 50 wealthy individuals in Latin America, with data showing that the median Bitcoin allocation among high-net-worth individuals in Brazil and Argentina has reached 15%.
2. The Penetration of Web3 in Traditional Business Empires
Grupo Salinas' telecom subsidiary Iusacell has launched a Bitcoin payment pilot covering 21,000 retail outlets across 32 states in Mexico. Even more disruptive is the agricultural subsidiary Cifra's "Bitcoin Pledge for Fertilizer" program — farmers can obtain loans for production materials by pledging BTC, with an annual interest rate of only 3.5% (far below the average loan rate of 18% at Mexican commercial banks). This integration model of "real industry + crypto finance" is redefining the financial infrastructure of developing countries.
3. Alternatives to Central Bank Digital Currency
The e-peso stablecoin launched by the Mexican central bank in 2024 has only a circulation of 0.3% of M2 due to anchor mechanism flaws. In an interview with The Economist, Pliego sharply pointed out: "When national digital currencies become tools of capital control, Bitcoin naturally becomes the free currency chosen by the market." Data from his bank Banca Azteca shows that Bitcoin-related business revenue increased by 470% year-on-year in Q1 2025, surpassing traditional credit card business.
III. Risk-Return Rebalancing of a 70% Position 1. The Art of Volatility Hedging
Despite Bitcoin's 112% increase this year, professional institutions remain cautious about such a high position. Morgan Stanley's private banking crypto strategy report indicates that Pliego may have adopted a combination structure of "60% spot + 20% call options + 20% stablecoins," hedging over 30% of short-term pullback risks through option premiums. On-chain data confirms this speculation: his associated address bought 12,000 call options with a strike price of $100,000 expiring in December 2025 on May 20.
2. The Wind Vane of Regional Capital Flows
Latin America is forming a vicious cycle of "dollar debt - peso depreciation - Bitcoin accumulation." Data from the Bank for International Settlements shows that the proportion of dollar debt among Mexican companies reached 43%. When the Federal Reserve begins a rate-cutting cycle, this currency mismatch risk may trigger a capital flight. Pliego's strategy essentially hedges peso liabilities with dollar assets (Bitcoin), a strategy that has been emulated by Brazilian mining giant Votorantim, which reported in its 2025 financial statement that Bitcoin accounted for 18% of its balance sheet.
3. The Grey Area of Regulatory Compliance
The Mexican Ministry of Finance has not yet clarified the tax treatment rules for personal cryptocurrency asset allocation. This regulatory ambiguity brings both arbitrage opportunities and hidden risks. Javier Aguilar, a partner at PwC Mexico, analyzes: "If a progressive capital gains tax rate is implemented in the future, 70% of crypto positions may face a tax burden of up to 45%." It is worth noting that Pliego recently registered a new family trust in the Cayman Islands, which may be used for tax optimization of crypto assets.
IV. The Crypto Migration of Emerging Market Capital 1. Asset Awakening Amid Rampant Inflation
Comparing the correlation of the Mexican peso and Bitcoin trends from 2023 to 2025 reveals an astonishing positive correlation coefficient of 0.81 (compared to only 0.35 in 2023). This transmission mechanism of "currency depreciation - Bitcoin appreciation" is being replicated in high-inflation regions like Southeast Asia and Africa. Data from the Nigerian cryptocurrency exchange Luno shows that local Bitcoin trading volume increased by 630% year-on-year in Q1 2025, surpassing South Africa as Africa's largest market.
2. The Paradigm Revolution in Traditional Wealth Management
UBS Group's latest (Global Family Office Report) indicates that among families with assets exceeding $1 billion, 28% have allocated cryptocurrency, up from just 3% in 2020. More notably, the private wealth division of Blackstone Group has launched a "Bitcoin Strategic Allocation" service, providing clients with a full-process solution from custody to tax planning, with a minimum entry threshold of $50 million.
3. Geopolitical Asset Redistribution
As the trade war at the Mexico-U.S. border escalates, Mexican companies are accelerating the conversion of dollar reserves into Bitcoin. The U.S. Treasury's TIC report indicates that Mexico's holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds fell from $120 billion in 2024 to $85 billion in 2025, while the on-chain balance of Bitcoin addresses in Mexico grew by 210% during the same period. This process of "de-dollarization" is reshaping the map of global capital flows.
Conclusion: A Daring Leap from Marginal Asset to Mainstream Allocation
Pliego's 70% position experiment is essentially a self-rescue action for emerging market capital on the eve of fiat currency credit collapse. When traditional portfolios cannot withstand the triple blow of "currency depreciation - high inflation - capital controls," Bitcoin is becoming the ultimate weapon in the wealth defense battle for developing countries. For ordinary investors, the key signal released by this event is not to blindly follow high positions but to reassess the strategic value of crypto assets in cross-currency risk hedging — in a peso-denominated world, a 20% Bitcoin allocation may better withstand systemic risks than 80% of dollar assets.
