Swiss activists to abandon bid for Swiss National Bank (SNB) to hold bitcoins into their reserves after collecting only about half of the 100,000 signatures needed to trigger a national referendum.
The initiative sought to change Switzerland’s constitution so that the SNB would hold bitcoin along with gold and foreign currency reserves. The group had 18 months to gather signatures and push for the country’s direct democracy to vote on the issue.
The Federal Chancellery classified the proposal as an amendment to the country’s Federal Constitution, demanding that part of the SNB’s monetary reserves be kept in gold and bitcoin. The text did not specify an assignment.
The campaign had framed bitcoin as a neutral reserve asset and a hedge against exposure to dollar- and euro-denominated holdings. Supporters said those currencies account for about three-quarters of the SNB’s foreign exchange reserves, according to Reuters.
The SNB had already rejected the idea last year, when it opposed adding bitcoin to its reserves over concerns about the cryptocurrency’s liquidity and volatility.
