Switzerland’s Central Bank Flatly Rejected Cryptocurrency for Reserves, Citing Wild Price Swings

Despite the shift in sentiment from some political figures, Schlegel reaffirmed the SNB’s longstanding position against digital currency holdings.

Switzerland's central bank has no intention of adding bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies to its reserves, even as global momentum builds toward U.S. and other major powers setting up digital asset holdings.

Speaking at a news conference in Zurich on Thursday, Swiss National Bank (SNB) Vice President Martin Schlegel said the institution's foreign-exchange reserves are used to support monetary policy. In this role, digital currencies fall short, he explained.

"We do not have plans to buy crypto assets," Schlegel told Bloomberg Television, highlighting concerns over price instability and a lack of legal framework.

The SNB's thinking contrasts with the U.S., where President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to create a U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a national digital asset stockpile, in a move to repurpose confiscated cryptocurrency into a "digital Fort Knox."

This follows Congress's efforts to integrate blockchain technologies into government systems through several bills, such as the "Token Taxonomy Act" and the "TRUST CHAIN Act," both of which are currently pending in Congress.

Several U.S. states are also proposing legislation to invest state funds into bitcoin and other digital assets, such as in Florida and Wyoming.

But Schlegel noted that the SNB's reserves are used for "preserving value."

"And as you know, cryptocurrencies have large fluctuations in value, so this is not a given," he said.

He also expressed technical skepticism, saying that cryptocurrencies "are basically software" and thus can contain bugs, further impairing their suitability for central banking.