Billionaire sounds alarm on ‘hidden tax’ draining wealth

Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego recently sounded the alarm on a "hidden" tax draining people's wealth and recommended buying a hard asset to survive the economic crisis.

When a person works, they spend a certain amount of time and earn money in exchange. Time is money. But when a government prints money "at will," it dilutes the value of money and also steals the time spent to earn money, Ricardo Salinas wrote in an X post on Aug. 30.

What the billionaire is implying is that a government facing a debt crisis tends to print more fiat currency to finance its expenditure. But the value of money is its purchasing power. The moment there is more fiat currency, the value of money gets diluted, he warned.

When a government prints more money, it affects the entire population of that country, and everyone has to bear the brunt of currency debasement.

Ricardo Salinas recommends Bitcoin investment

Ricardo Salinas recommended buying and holding Bitcoin (BTC) to beat the "hidden tax" due to currency debasement. Bitcoin maximalists like him have long argued in favor of the leading cryptocurrency's debasement trade thesis.

While there is no limit to the amount of fiat currency that can be printed, Bitcoin has a maximum supply of 21 million coins. So, Bitcoin remains a highly valuable asset, but fiat currency loses its value with more printing.

Ricardo Salinas has admitted to holding 70% of his liquid portfolio in Bitcoin. He also thinks Bitcoin could hit $1 million, but he hasn't committed to a deadline yet.

Bitcoin was trading at $78,692 at the time of writing, as per Decibel .

This story was originally published by TheStreet on Sep 3, 2026, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.