It’s another milestone for Bitcoin which apparently for the first time has reached the balance sheet of a central bank.
The Czech National Bank (CNB) announced on Thursday the creation of a $1 million test wallet that includes bitcoin, a dollar stablecoin, and a tokenized deposit.
Approved by the bank’s board on October 30, the pilot is designed to give the central bank hands-on experience with blockchain-based assets, which it says could reshape the way payments and financial systems operate in the future.
The total amount invested will not be actively increased, the bank stated, and the acquisition was made outside of the bank’s existing international reserves.
CNB Governor Aleš Michl first floated the idea of an investment in bitcoin in January this year, a move that was met with derision by ECB President Christine Lagarde. Although it is part of the European Union and the ECB, the Czech Republic has not adopted the euro, which gives its central bank a modicum of independence from the rest of the continent.
“I came up with the idea of creating a test portfolio in January 2025,” Michl said in this morning’s announcement. “The goal was to test decentralized bitcoin from a central bank perspective and evaluate its potential role in diversifying our reserves.”
