According to local media, President Martin Schlegel of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) rejected the idea of holding Bitcoin as part of Switzerland’s central bank reserves.
Speaking to Tamedia Group, Schlegel cited three major concerns surrounding cryptocurrency. The first one is their volatility, he said they are not suited to preserving long-term value.
“Secondly, our reserves need to be very liquid in reserves so that they can be used quickly for monetary policy purposes when necessary,” Schlegel told Tandia, pointing to the lack of security inherent in software-based assets. “We all know that there are bugs and other weaknesses in the software.”
The words of the president of the Swiss National Bank come amid growing debate in Switzerland over the new wealthy class. According to the article, recent initiatives are pushing for constitutional amendments requiring SNB to retain Bitcoin in its reserves along with gold.
The initiative, which launched in December and led by entrepreneur Eve Bennaim, has not been detailed about Bitcoin allocations, but specifies that it should be built from bank revenues. It will take 18 months to collect 100,000 signatures to trigger a national vote on this topic.
Despite the growing acceptance of Swiss cryptocurrency, Schlegel has dismissed the asset class as a “niche phenomenon” despite various Swiss banks offering cryptocurrency-related services to their customers. He told Tandere that the currency is already competing, and Schlegel claims that the banks are “not afraid to compete with cryptocurrencies,” citing the continued strength of the Swiss franc.