The SNB has expressed scepticism about bitcoin previously.
Keystone-SDA
Campaigners have launched a people’s initiative to oblige the Swiss National Bank (SNB) to hold part of its reserves in bitcoin.
+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox
The initiative text was published in the Federal Gazette on Tuesday. The committee for the proposal, entitled “For a financially strong, sovereign and responsible Switzerland (Bitcoin Initiative)” have 18 months to collect the 100,000 signatures necessary for it to be put to a public vote.
More
More
Swiss banks shed fear of bitcoin
The initiative calls for a change to the constitution stating that the SNB should build up currency reserves from its earnings, part of which should be held in gold and bitcoin. The text does not specify how much bitcoin should be held.
The initiative is backed by a group led by internet pioneer and author Yves Bennaïm from French-speaking Switzerland, as well as a number of Swiss cryptocurrency advocates. The primary aim is to initiate a debate, Bennaïm told the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper in spring.
More
More
SNB president warns of potential inflation shocks in Switzerland
Two years ago, the then SNB President Thomas Jordan declared that bitcoin did not meet the requirements for currency reserves.
Adapted from German by DeepL/sb
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
