A campaign to force the Swiss National Bank to hold Bitcoin as part of its reserves has failed to gather enough signatures for a national referendum. The effort, launched earlier this year, aimed to use Switzerland's direct democracy tools to challenge the central bank's cautious stance on digital assets. With the signature deadline passed, the proposal won't go to a vote.
How the campaign worked
Under Swiss law, any citizen or group can propose a constitutional amendment if they collect 100,000 valid signatures within 18 months. The Bitcoin initiative sought to add a clause requiring the SNB to hold a portion of its reserves in Bitcoin. Organizers framed it as a hedge against inflation and a way to modernize the central bank's asset allocation. But the pitch clearly didn't catch fire.
Why it stalled
The campaign never announced official tallies, but sources close to the effort say they fell thousands short of the threshold. Timing may have played a role. Bitcoin's price has been volatile this year, and the broader Swiss public remains skeptical of crypto as a reserve asset. The SNB itself has repeatedly warned that Bitcoin is too risky and illiquid for its balance sheet. Without a groundswell of grassroots support, the signature drive ran out of steam.
What the SNB thinks
The central bank has stayed quiet on this specific push—no official statement, no press release. But its position is well known. SNB Chairman Thomas Jordan has called Bitcoin a "niche phenomenon" and stressed that the bank's mandate is price stability, not crypto speculation. Even if a referendum had succeeded, the SNB would have faced a tricky legal and operational challenge.
What happens now
For proponents, it's back to the drawing board. They could try again with a revised proposal or push for legislative change through Parliament. But with the 2027 federal elections on the horizon, political bandwidth for crypto mandates looks thin. Switzerland's Crypto Valley in Zug continues to thrive on the private side, but the central bank's door remains shut—for now.
