Billionaire Has 80% Bitcoin In Portfolio, Says He’d ‘Never Buy AI Bubble’

Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz warned about the crypto market’s lack of fresh buyers and growing pressure over Strategy’s massive Bitcoin treasury.Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas increased Bitcoin’s share in his liquid portfolio to 80%, up from 70%, emphasizing a Warren Buffett-style value investing approach.He said he avoids the “AI bubble” and does not hold stocks or bonds, retaining the remainder in gold and silver miners.Salinas endorsed Strategy’s Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock as a favorable investment and defended Michael Saylor amid criticisms of Strategy being a “Ponzi scheme.”Billionaire Ricardo Salinas said he has increased Bitcoin’s (BTC) share of his liquid portfolio to 80% and has no interest in chasing the artificial intelligence boom.Speaking to CoinDesk this week, Salinas explained that he “would never buy the AI bubble” and that he continued to accumulate Bitcoin through its eight-month slide from above $120,000 last year in October to roughly $60,000, increasing his allocation from a previously disclosed 70%. The billionaire framed the move as classical value investing rather than speculation.’No Stocks, No Bonds’Salinas said his investment approach resembles that of Warren Buffett, but with a Bitcoin twist.”I don’t own stocks. I don’t own bonds,” he said, describing Bitcoin as the core of his liquid portfolio. The remainder sits in gold and silver miners, a nod to his family’s mining heritage in Mexico. His only indirect exposure to the AI trade comes through select Bitcoin mining companies whose data-center infrastructure could eventually be repurposed for AI computing workloads.Bitcoin’s price was up over 1% during the past 24 hours. On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment around BTC moved to ‘neutral’ from ‘bullish’ as chatter around it stayed in the ‘low’ levels over the past day.The comments arrive as investors continue debating whether capital has been pulled away from crypto markets by surging enthusiasm for artificial intelligence companies and data-center investments. Michael Saylor himself recently described Bitcoin’s current weakness as an “AI summer slump”, arguing capital has rotated out of crypto and into AI-linked equities, making Salinas’s outright rejection of the AI trade an unusually pointed counterposition.Salinas Backs STRC Despite Mounting PressureSalinas also endorsed Strategy Inc’s (MSTR) Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock (STRC), calling the security a “no-brainer” for investors seeking dollar-denominated income. He went further in the interview, defending Saylor against critics who have labeled Strategy a “Ponzi scheme,” saying such characterizations reflect “profound ignorance of what’s going on.”The preferred shares currently offer a dividend rate of roughly 11.5%, making them one of the highest-yielding instruments tied to the Bitcoin treasury ecosystem.The endorsement, however, came at a difficult moment for the security. STRC recently closed at the record low near $88, well below its $100 issuance par value, forcing Strategy to suspend at-the-market sales of the preferred shares. In the aftermath, Saylor called for “Bitcoin unity,” saying “the opportunity is bigger than the argument.”Salinas also dismissed prominent Bitcoin critics and skeptics, including longtime gold advocate Peter Schiff and entrepreneur Mark Cuban, who recently sold off most of his Bitcoin holdings, arguing the asset had “failed as a war hedge” during the US-Iran conflict, a sale Fundstrat’s Tom Lee characterized as a sign that crypto investors are “rage quitting” the asset class.Novogratz Sees A Market Waiting For BuyersA day after Salinas’ comments, Galaxy Digital (GLXY) CEO Mike Novogratz offered a more cautious assessment of the crypto market during an appearance on Anthony Scaramucci’s podcast.Speaking on the SALT podcast with Anthony Scaramucci on Saturday, Novogratz said the market currently has “no energy” and “no new buyers,” reflecting a broader lack of enthusiasm following Bitcoin’s prolonged decline. He also flagged growing pressure on Saylor over Strategy’s BTC treasury, the largest corporate Bitcoin holding in the world, as the STRC pause limits the firm’s ability to keep adding.Still, he urged long-term investors to give Bitcoin the “benefit of the doubt,” arguing that the asset’s historical four-year cycle could reassert itself next year and reignite demand. Novogratz has maintained a $100,000 year-end Bitcoin call even as he has repeatedly observed that AI is “stealing crypto’s thunder,” the exact rotation Salinas is now positioning his portfolio against.Bitcoin has dipped more than 26% so far this year, trading down by nearly 50% since its all-time high last year. Read also: Michael Saylor Calls For Bitcoin Unity As Strategy’s STRC Pause Hands Critics Fresh AmmunitionFor updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]comSubscribe to Chart ArtGet the daily crypto email you’ll actually love to read. 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