Switzerland: Bitcoin could become a reserve of the Central Bank

In Switzerland, a new popular initiative aims to amend the Constitution to introduce Bitcoin among the reserves of the Central Bank. 

Switzerland: the initiative to include Bitcoin among the reserves of the Central Bank

A group of Bitcoin supporters, led by Yves Bennaim, has proposed a new popular initiative that aims to introduce Bitcoin into the reserves of the Swiss National Bank.

“NEWS: Swiss supporters of #Bitcoin are launching a petition for a referendum so that the Swiss National Bank holds #Bitcoin in its reserves, ensuring ‘sovereignty and neutrality,’ according to campaign leader Yves Bennaïm. They need over 100,000 signatures to trigger the vote.”

Basically, in Switzerland, the popular initiative is a tool provided for by the system through which signatures are collected through a committee on issues related to the economic, political, and social life of the country, and then deposited and transmitted to Parliament.

It is, therefore, a real petition that, if the legislative body were to approve it, would give rise to a popular referendum. 

And in fact, this process would directly modify the Swiss Constitution, thus inserting Bitcoin as the monetary reserve of the Swiss National Bank.

Switzerland: who is behind the initiative of Bitcoin as the National Bank’s monetary reserve

As anticipated, the leader of the campaign is the Bitcoin expert, Yves Bennaim, member of the Bitcoin Association Switzerland trade association, as well as a technology communicator and enthusiast of everything related to innovation. 

In this regard, Bennaim commented as follows:

“We are finalizing the organizational preparations for the committee and drafting the documents to be submitted to the Federal Chancellery to start the process”

Not only that, supporting the new popular initiative of Bitcoin as the monetary reserve of the Swiss National Bank is also Luzius Meisser, president of Bitcoin Suisse. 

From what has emerged, Meisser will bring this issue directly to the meeting of the Swiss National Bank next Friday.

Amending the Swiss Constitution to become increasingly neutral

Going into more detail, the new popular initiative signed by Yves Bennaim aims to modify the Swiss Constitution, in particular article 99 which reads as follows:

“The national bank constitutes sufficient monetary reserves by drawing on its earnings; part of these reserves is in gold”.

With this wording, the petition wants simply two words added: “and Bitcoin”.

If the popular initiative were to be accepted and transformed into reality, the Swiss National Bank will be forced to hold not only gold reserves in its vaults, but also Bitcoin.

Looking at the possible effects that would be obtained with the insertion of Bitcoin as a monetary reserve of the Swiss National Bank, first of all there is a greater strengthening of the country’s neutrality. 

And in fact, by including BTC, the Swiss National Bank would experience a further distancing from the monetary policy of the European Central Bank (or ECB), making itself more and more an independent monetary institution. 

Not only that, for the same Bitcoin (BTC), becoming a reserve of a Central Bank would mean recording an increase in demand and therefore a possible increase in its price. 

Swiss love for BTC

Yves Bennaim’s proposal in Switzerland comes just a few days after the long-awaited fourth Bitcoin halving and, over a month after BTC reached its new all-time high above $73,000.

Not only that, this initiative adds to the other Swiss initiatives that are increasingly open to Bitcoin and the crypto sector. 

Recently, PostFinance has offered for its users who invest at least $100 in one of the 11 cryptocurrencies it offers, the opportunity to win one of the three bitcoins up for grabs by April 30, 2024.

Not only, in February, always PostFinance together with Sygnum Bank, launched a crypto custody offer for 2.5 million customers.

The price of BTC

At the time of writing, BTC is worth $66,168 and holds a total market capitalization of $1.3 trillion. 

Considering that Bitcoin’s halving was executed just three days ago, the trend of the last week seems quite positive. In fact, currently the price of BTC is up by +5% compared to last week. 

Expanding the chart of BTC price in the last month, the last week of BTC halving was the worst. The minimum price of bitcoin for the month reached $60,000 on April 18, two days before the halving. 

On the contrary, on April 8th, BTC reached its monthly high, at a price of over $72,000. 

Looking at the situation of Bitcoin spot ETF during this halving week, it seems that on Friday and yesterday, positive inflows were recorded, after five consecutive days of outflows.