Author: PANews, Zen
National central banks have also started to "speculate" in cryptocurrencies.
In November 2025, the Czech National Bank announced the purchase of a total of $1 million in crypto assets as a "digital asset experimental portfolio." This marks the first time in history that the Czech central bank has directly purchased cryptocurrency, and it is also the first instance among central banks worldwide.
Czech Central Bank Pilots Million-Dollar Digital Asset Reserve Portfolio
According to disclosures from the Czech central bank, Bitcoin constitutes the majority of the asset composition in this portfolio, supplemented by some stablecoins pegged to the US dollar and a tokenized bank deposit. All assets were purchased through regulated trading platforms. The central bank has made it clear that this move is purely experimental, does not count towards official foreign exchange reserves, and is classified as intangible assets in accounting.
This pilot investment only accounts for 0.0006% of the central bank's total assets and does not represent any investment advice or formal stance on crypto assets.
According to the Czech central bank's statement, the purpose of this pilot is to gain practical experience in holding digital assets and to test the necessary related processes.
To this end, the central bank team will practice the complete process chain from private key custody, multi-level approval, security mechanisms to anti-money laundering compliance, to ensure a comprehensive understanding of digital asset management. The entire investment will be isolated from the central bank's traditional reserves and will not be actively expanded until the experimental evaluation is completed.
As planned, the Czech central bank will evaluate the project's effectiveness in two to three years and then decide on the next steps. During this period, the portfolio's value will fluctuate with market changes or small-scale experimental trades.
"As a central bank, we want to test this path." Czech central bank governor Aleš Michl pointed out that emerging payment and investment methods are constantly appearing, and the central bank hopes to be prepared in advance. He envisions a future where people can easily use Czech koruna to purchase tokenized government bonds and other assets, just as "one click can buy coffee, and another click can invest in assets that were once only accessible to large investors."
National Bitcoin Reserve Proposal Faces Significant Resistance
In fact, shortly before the official launch of the pilot investment portfolio, a discussion that attracted widespread attention was already underway in the Czech Republic regarding a "national Bitcoin reserve."
Earlier this year, Aleš Michl publicly stated that he would consider holding Bitcoin in foreign exchange reserves, with an initial idea of allocating up to 5% of foreign reserves to Bitcoin assets, potentially worth up to €7 billion. However, this proposal immediately sparked various games and doubts once it was revealed.
Within the Czech Republic and among the central bank's internal members, opinions were not unified, and the opposition mainly focused on concerns about Bitcoin's high-risk attributes. Jan Kubicek, a member of the Czech central bank's board, expressed "skepticism" about including Bitcoin in the bank's vast reserve assets, primarily worried about its legal uncertainties and the volatility of digital currencies. Czech Finance Minister Zbyněk Stanjura also publicly expressed concern, stating that while he respects the central bank's independence, the move is worrisome. He warned that Bitcoin's price is highly volatile, saying, "The central bank should symbolize stability, and Bitcoin is clearly not a stable asset."
On a broader European level, the European Central Bank (ECB) has explicitly stated its opposition. ECB President Christine Lagarde directly poured cold water on the proposal during a press conference at the end of January, stating that she had communicated with Michl and believed that central banks of EU member states would not include Bitcoin in their reserves. Lagarde emphasized that central bank reserve assets should be "highly liquid, reliable, and safe," and she does not believe cryptocurrencies meet these criteria. Although the Czech Republic is not in the Eurozone, its central bank is part of the ECB system, and this strong statement effectively raised a red flag for the Czech Bitcoin reserve plan.
Under dual pressure from both internal and external sources, the Czech central bank's board announced its agreement to analyze and evaluate whether new asset classes, including Bitcoin, are suitable for reserves, but no changes will be implemented in this regard until the research is completed. The central bank's official statement did not directly mention "Bitcoin," but it agreed in principle to evaluate broader reserve diversification options.
The proposal to establish a national Bitcoin reserve has been shelved, making its implementation unlikely in the short term. Even though there are officials like Aleš Michl in the Czech Republic advocating for the inclusion of crypto assets in reserves, the pressure from the EU central bank system and cautious voices within the government make such groundbreaking initiatives difficult to realize quickly.
However, Michl's influence has not given up on "lobbying," as he continues to advocate for Bitcoin. Amid negative comments triggered by the meme craze, Michl stated that the cryptocurrency market would experience "failures and successes," but Bitcoin is significantly different from other crypto assets and should not be conflated with cryptocurrencies.
Purchasing Coinbase Stock, Czech Central Bank Seems Unconcerned About Its "Crypto Concept"?
Since 2022, the Czech central bank has gradually increased the proportion of gold and stocks in its official reserves to seek more robust long-term returns, which is also one of Michl's diversification strategies since taking office.
After the Bitcoin reserve plan fell through, the Czech central bank unexpectedly allocated "crypto stocks" in its risk exposure— in the second quarter of this year, the Czech central bank made its first investment in Coinbase Global, spending about $18 million to purchase 51,732 shares, with an average cost price of around $350.
In the second quarter, Coinbase's stock price surged, rising from a low of about $142 per share to over $350 by the end of June, far exceeding the gains of all mainstream cryptocurrencies. During this period, the overall cryptocurrency industry was still in a downturn, and the "takeoff" of publicly traded companies' Ethereum reserve plans was still in the works.
However, the Czech central bank's willingness to purchase Coinbase stock seems unrelated to its "cryptocurrency" attributes and has not undergone in-depth analysis. In response to Barron's, while it did not comment on the purchase, it did reveal the underlying motivation— the Czech central bank stated that its index passive replication strategy had not changed.
In 2023, the Czech central bank published a blog post stating that it had repeatedly declared, "The investment approach is passive stock index replication." Its investments in the US market are linked to the S&P 500 index, aiming to replicate the structure of the S&P 500 index to the greatest extent possible, accurately replicating the weight of each stock in the index.
Therefore, the Czech central bank's purchase of Coinbase stock is clearly entirely due to the fact that the company made history in May this year by becoming the first cryptocurrency-native company to be included in the S&P 500 index.
Cautious and Open Regulation in the Czech Republic
In terms of regulatory policy, the Czech Republic has shown a cautiously open attitude towards the crypto industry in recent years. On one hand, the government and central bank are keenly aware of the risks associated with crypto assets, emphasizing investor protection and the prevention of systemic risks; on the other hand, they actively align with the EU's unified regulatory framework, updating national laws to support the compliant development of the crypto industry.
At the end of 2024, the Czech Parliament passed the "Digitalization of Financial Markets Act" with a high vote, which was subsequently signed into effect by President Petr Pavel in February 2025. The act includes provisions for tax exemptions on capital gains for individuals holding cryptocurrencies long-term, establishing a "small transaction exemption" threshold of 100,000 Czech koruna (approximately $4,100) per year, clearly granting crypto companies and investors the right to open bank accounts without discrimination, and integrating the EU's "Crypto Asset Market Regulation (MiCA)" into the Czech domestic legal system.
In addition to regulatory rules, the Czech Republic has also taken steps in crypto infrastructure and industry cultivation. The CNB Innovation Lab, under the central bank, serves as a platform to support fintech exploration, and this digital asset pilot portfolio was born from this innovation center. Meanwhile, the government supports industry organizations and think tanks to research the potential of the crypto industry.
In specific regulatory practices, the Czech central bank and related institutions still adhere to a prudent principle. The CNB has repeatedly emphasized the high-risk nature of crypto assets. For example, when announcing this pilot investment portfolio, the central bank stressed that Bitcoin is highly volatile, with prices potentially soaring but also possibly dropping to zero in extreme cases, and stated that this test investment portfolio does not represent any form of investment advice it provides.
Additionally, the Czech central bank pointed out that regulation cannot prevent all collapses and fraudulent activities, and some projects and funds may face difficulties or fail in the future. "Therefore, even if providers have obtained licenses from the CNB or other European regulatory agencies, people should be aware of the risks associated with these assets."
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
