Czech Central Bank Is The First In The World To Include Bitcoin In Its Portfolio
- 13.11.2025, 19:14
The Czech regulator has directed $1 million to crypto assets for experimental purposes.
The Czech National Bank (CNB) has announced the creation of a $1 million pilot crypto-portfolio, which includes bitcoin, dollar-stablecoins and a tokenized deposit. This is the first known instance of bitcoin appearing on the central bank's balance sheet.
The pilot project was approved by the CNB's board of governors on October 30. The bank said the purpose of the test is to gain hands-on experience with blockchain-based technologies "that could revolutionize the way financial and payment systems work in the future."
The central bank will test the entire chain of processes involved in buying, storing and managing digital assets, from technical key administration and multi-level transaction approval processes to crisis scenarios and security mechanisms. Anti-money laundering compliance checks will also be carried out.
The experiment was initiated by CNB head Ales Michl. According to him, the idea to assess the potential of bitcoin as a strategic asset came to his mind at the beginning of the year. And further discussions on the project led to the expansion of the project to include stablecoins and tokenized deposits. This portfolio structure will allow the regulator to compare different types of digital assets and their properties, test their accounting, auditing and ways of using them in settlements, the statement said.
"We will keep the public informed about our experience and will present an overall assessment of the project in about two to three years," Mihl said.
The bank emphasized that the digital assets in the test portfolio are separate from foreign exchange reserves and in no way affect the CNB's ability to conduct potential foreign exchange interventions or direct monetary intervention Separately, the CNB "does not plan to include bitcoin or other digital assets in its international reserves in the near future."
In January, Michl suggested investing up to 5% of the Czech Central Bank's reserves in bitcoin for diversification purposes. He noted U.S. President Donald Trump's initiative to create a crypto reserve in the United States, but also added that bitcoin's upward trend will continue, even without American influence.
Trump signed an executive order on the formation of the crypto reserve in March, but there have been no official reports on its actual creation so far. An audit of the US national bitcoin reserve has been delayed for more than six months.