ZURICH – A proposal to oblige the Swiss National Bank (SNB) to hold bitcoin was set in motion in an initiative published by the Swiss federal chancellery on Tuesday.
The initiative proposes changing the law to make the Swiss central back hold part of its reserves in gold and bitcoin.
Put forward by a group of 10 people including a number of Swiss cryptocurrency advocates, the initiative has 18 months to collect the 100,000 signatures necessary for it to be put to a public referendum.
The SNB has expressed skepticism about bitcoin previously. The central bank’s chairman said last month he was wary about cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ether.
Switzerland holds regular referendums on legislative initiatives to change federal law.
(Writing by Dave Graham; editing by Jason Neely)
