JAKARTA – The third richest person in Mexico sent a heartwarming New Year's message to Bitcoin (BTC) fans. The message was sent by Ricardo Salinas Pliego, on Christmas Eve. Pliego also recommends staying away from paper money and buying Bitcoins in his two-minute celebratory video.

He gave three pieces of advice to his 957,200 Twitter followers as part of his Christmas and New Year's message before asking his followers to retweet and share:

“Avoid fiat money. Be it Dollars, Euros or Yen – it's all the same. It's counterfeit money made of lying paper. Central banks are producing more than ever.”

He paused for a moment before pointing at the camera to say, “Invest in Bitcoin!”

In front of the golden Christmas tree, two other "gifts" of advice Salinas left to his followers are to let go of jealousy and believe in yourself, especially when it comes to pursuing freedom and innovation.

It is not surprising that Salinas promotes investing in BTC. A leading Bitcoin “evangelist” since 2013, his Twitter bio describes himself simply as a “Mexican entrepreneur and Bitcoin holder.”

Salinas aims to make Mexico's second largest retail bank, Banco Azteca, the country's first lender to do business in BTC. However, Salinas, who served as chairman of the bank's holding company, Grupo Salinas, was disappointed in June this year.

In response to its ambitious plans, Mexico's central bank stated that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are not legal tender and are prohibited from being used in the country's financial system.

In September of this year, Alejandro Díaz de León, governor of the Bank of Mexico, rejected BTC as legal tender, citing extremely high price volatility, as a major barrier to full adoption.

But that statement could not possibly deter Salinas. He has weighed on 128 million Mexicans since the summer and in an interview with Cointelegraph in January this year. He expressed his belief that BTC as an asset cannot be confiscated.

In the interview, he also stated that he first bought BTC for USD 500 in 2013 through Grayscale, saying that in 2018, it had been one of his “best investments.”

He also tweeted in favor of Bitcoin remittances, which could be a potential $40 billion market for Mexicans sending cross-border payments to the United States.


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