Giw Zanganeh, VP of Energy and Mining at stablecoin giant Tether, has announced a new initiative to amend Switzerland's constitution in order to add Bitcoin to the balance sheet of the Swiss National Bank (SNB).
Earlier today, it was published in the Federal Gazette (Bundesblatt), which kickstarts the signature collection phase.
The initiative will have to secure a total of 100,000 manuscript signatures from Swiss citizens until June 30. If successful, it will be reviewed by the Swiss Federal Assembly, the country's federal bicameral parliament.
The reserves of the SNB are diversified across various fiat currencies and vast gold reserves. It boasts roughly 1,040 tons of the yellow metal.
However, Bitcoin advocates also want to include Bitcoin in Article 99 (Clause 3) of the country's federal constitution, which states that part of the country's reserves should be held in gold. This would require adding two or three words (depending on the language).
This is not the first time that such an initiative has been launched. Back in October 2021, 2B4CH, a local crypto-focused think tank, launched a similar initiative. Back then, it failed, as expected. However, now that the U.S. is seriously considering establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve, other countries might follow suit.
As reported by U.Today, Christian Lindner, the former German financial minister, has called for adding Bitcoin to the national reserves of Germany as well as the reserves of the European Central Bank (ECB).
Switzerland, of course, is known as one of the most crypto-friendly countries. Zug, one of 26 cantons, started experimenting with Bitcoin payments all the way back in 2016, when the leading cryptocurrency was still relatively unknown.
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov