The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has no intention of buying or holding Bitcoin as a reserve currency. This was stated by Chair Thomas Jordan at the annual general meeting, according to Reuters.
In his words, there are no technical obstacles to doing so. The SNB could either acquire the cryptocurrency directly or buy investment products based on it. The technical and operational conditions could be arranged relatively quickly, Jordan assured.
“But at this point, we do not consider that Bitcoin meets the requirements for monetary reserves, so for now our decision — not to have cryptocurrency on the balance sheet,” he added.
In February, the company Tether and the authorities of Lugano, Switzerland’s ninth-most populous city, announced the transformation of the latter into the European capital of Bitcoin.
The city authorities proposed to make digital gold, Tether (USDT) and the city token LVGA effectively legal tender.
At the national level, El Salvador decided to take such a step regarding Bitcoin. In September 2021 the law recognizing cryptocurrency as legal tender came into effect. A recent study showed that over the past months the use of the digital asset has not taken on a mass scale in the country.
In April 2022, media reported that, following El Salvador, the Central African Republic — one of Africa’s poorest countries — followed suit.
As part of their reserves, Bitcoin is used by a number of well-known publicly traded companies, including Tesla (Elon Musk’s) and Block (formerly Square) Jack Dorsey.
MicroStrategy pioneered, having converted part of its reserves into cryptocurrency in August 2020. As of 14 April 2022 the firm had accumulated 129,218 BTC, purchased with its own funds and raised capital. The company’s CEO, Michael Saylor, called the strategy of buying and holding digital gold “extremely successful”.
In November 2021, the SNB announced the technical readiness to launch a CBDC. Before that, central-bank officials had said there was no need for a digital franc.