Swiss National Bank Chief Raises Concerns About Adding Bitcoin to Currency ReservesThe chairman of the Swiss National Bank has expressed reservations about incorporating bitcoin into the central bank’s currency reserves. He stated that no decision has been made yet to invest in bitcoin, underscoring the necessity for currency reserves to be liquid, sustainable, and easily tradable, given their use in international payments.Swiss National Bank on Adding Bitcoin to Currency ReservesThe chairman of the Swiss National Bank (SNB), Thomas Jordan, expressed skepticism at the central bank’s annual general meeting of shareholders on Friday about the prospect of the SNB purchasing bitcoins. This statement comes amid ongoing pressure from advocates to amend Swiss legislation to permit the inclusion of cryptocurrencies in the nation’s currency reserves.
Jordan noted that adding bitcoin to the Swiss National Bank’s reserve assets, which include gold, foreign currencies, bonds, and shares, could have potential downsides such as increased carbon emissions. He then highlighted the energy consumption associated with bitcoin mining and transactions. He said at the meeting:
We have not yet decided that we want to invest in bitcoin — actually for good reasons. Currency reserves are international payments. They have to be liquid. They have to be sustainable. And we have to be able to sell and buy them.
A campaigning group headed by cryptocurrency advocate Yves Bennaïm has initiated a proposal to make a subtle yet significant amendment to a constitutional article. Currently, the article states that part of the Swiss National Bank’s reserves is “held in gold.” The proposed change seeks to modify it to “in gold and bitcoin.” Luzius Meisser, a campaigner from cryptocurrency broker Bitcoin Suisse, criticized the Swiss central bank for incurring significant losses on its investments in foreign government bonds, suggesting that investments in bitcoin could have yielded substantial profits instead.
Both Bennaïm and Meisser have argued that by including BTC in the SNB’s currency reserves, Switzerland would mark its independence from the European Central Bank (ECB), emphasizing that such a step would strengthen the country’s neutrality while also diversifying the SNB’s investment portfolio.
Source: https://news.bitcoin.com/swiss-national-bank-chief-raises-concerns-about-adding-bitcoin-to-currency-reserves/
