The Swiss National Bank excludes bitcoin from its reserves

While cryptos jostle the world monetary order, and push the states and central banks to review their strategies, Switzerland chooses the path of prudence. The Swiss National Bank (BNS), a guardian of the country's economic stability, has just firmly rejected the idea of ​​integrating Bitcoin into its reserves. This clear positioning comes at a time when a citizen initiative is trying to force the adoption of the crypto at the highest institutional level.

Stability above all: Why does the SNB refuse to integrate bitcoin?

During the annual general meeting held in Bern this Friday, April 25, 2025, Martin Schlegel, president of the Swiss National Bank (BNS), categorically rejected the idea of ​​including Bitcoin among reserve assets.

He has assertive Before the shareholders:

Crypto cannot currently fulfill the requirements for our monetary reserves.

Schlegel stressed that BNS assets must meet strict criteria, including high market liquidity and value stability, qualities that bitcoin is not able to ensure in the current state of its development.

By sticking to these criteria, the BNS aims to guarantee the rapid availability of its resources, essential for carrying out market interventions or supporting the Swiss franc during periods of volatility.

Concretely, the BNS identifies several weaknesses which exclude bitcoin from its reserve options:

• The lack of sufficient liquidity: the Bitcoin exchanges volumes are deemed too low to ensure a rapid sale without major impact on prices;
• Extreme volatility: significant Bitcoin fluctuations do not guarantee reliable preservation of the value of reserves;
• Strategic inadequacy: BNS must have assets that can be mobilized without delay in crisis situations, a condition that is difficult to fulfill by cryptos.

By maintaining this line of conduct, the Swiss Central Bank affirms its absolute priority: preserving the stability and resilience of the national financial system, even in the face of new global economic dynamics.

A pro-bitcoin referendum which upsets the institutional status quo

In contrast to the prudence of the BNS, a citizen initiative seeks to shake up the legal foundations for the management of national reserves. Under the leadership of Luzius Meisser, entrepreneur and fervent defender of Bitcoin, a movement aims to force the Swiss National Bank to diversify its assets by integrating bitcoin alongside gold.

In addition, according to Meisser, “Bitcoin represents a special asset in a multipolar world where confidence in public debts gradually collapses”. This initiative aims to organize a national referendum to modify the Constitution, in order to thus give a political dimension to this economic debate.

The Swiss legislative process, based on direct democracy, allows citizens to propose such constitutional modifications, subject to bringing together the sufficient number of signatures. If the initiative reaches this threshold, a national vote could then force the SNB to review its principles of asset management.

This perspective involves in particular on the capacity of a central bank to maintain its neutrality and its operational flexibility while responding to specific popular injunctions.

If the Bitcoin campaign managed to mobilize a significant part of the Swiss population, this could create an unprecedented precedent in the history of modern central banks. However, even in case of success, the road would be long before an effective implementation, given the necessary legal, regulatory and technical adjustments. In a world where confidence in traditional currencies vacillates, the debate around Bitcoin in sovereign reserves could thus mark a fundamental evolution of the role of central banks in the face of cryptos.