Swiss activists call for central bank to include bitcoin in reserves

January 1, 2025

Campaigners in Switzerland are making a bold move to push the Swiss National Bank (SNB) into holding bitcoin as part of its reserves. This initiative, named “For a financially strong, sovereign and responsible Switzerland (Bitcoin Initiative),” was officially published in the Federal Gazette on Tuesday. Now, the committee behind this proposal has 18 months to gather 100,000 signatures in order to bring it to a public vote.

The proposed change to the constitution would require the SNB to accumulate currency reserves from its earnings, with a portion of those reserves allocated to gold and bitcoin. Interestingly, the initiative does not specify the exact amount of bitcoin that should be reserved.

The group leading the charge for this initiative includes well-known figures like internet pioneer and author Yves Bennaïm from French-speaking Switzerland, alongside a coalition of Swiss cryptocurrency enthusiasts. Their main goal is to spark a meaningful debate around this topic, as Bennaïm shared with the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper earlier this year.

It’s worth noting that two years ago, the former SNB President Thomas Jordan publicly stated that bitcoin did not meet the necessary requirements to be considered as part of the central bank’s reserves.

Overall, this initiative marks an important and intriguing development in Swiss politics and could potentially have significant implications for the country’s financial landscape down the line.