Swiss National Bank President Dismisses BTC as Reserve Asset

Swiss National Bank (SNB) President Martin Schlegel has rejected the concept of holding bitcoin as a part of Switzerland’s central financial institution reserves, citing a scarcity of stability, liquidity, and safety, based on native media.

Speaking to the Tamedia group, Schlegel cited three major considerations surrounding cryptocurrencies. The first one is their volatility, which he stated makes them unsuitable for long-term worth preservation.

“Second, our reserves need to be highly liquid so that they can be used quickly for monetary policy purposes if needed,” Schlegel advised Tamedia earlier than pointing to a scarcity of safety inherent in being software-based belongings. “We all know that software can have bugs and other weak points.”

The Swiss National Bank President’s phrases come amid a rising debate in Switzerland over the nascent asset class. A current initiative is pushing for a constitutional modification requiring the SNB to carry bitcoin in its reserves alongside gold, the article stated.

The initiative, launched in December and led by entrepreneur Yves Bennaim, doesn’t go into particulars on the subject of the bitcoin allocations however specifies it must be constructed up from the financial institution’s earnings. It has 18 months to gather 100,000 signatures in a bid to set off a nationwide vote on the subject.

Despite Switzerland’s rising acceptance of cryptocurrencies, with varied Swiss banks providing prospects cryptocurrency-related companies, Schlegel dismissed the asset class as a “niche phenomenon.” Currencies, he advised Tamedia, have already been in competitors, and Schlegel maintained the financial institution is “not afraid of competition from cryptocurrencies,” citing the continued energy of the Swiss franc.