Swiss Bitcoin Reserve Effort Withdrawn After Resistance From Central Bank

Campaign founder Yves Bennaim isn’t giving up. Even after his group failed to gather enough signatures to force a Swiss national referendum on Bitcoin reserves, Bennaim said another push could follow.

The Swiss direct democracy system requires campaigns to hit a signature threshold within 18 months — his team didn’t make it.

The initiative would have required the Swiss National Bank to hold Bitcoin alongside gold and foreign currencies. Supporters argued that adding Bitcoin to the SNB’s reserves would reduce dependence on the US dollar and the euro.

Bennaim drew a parallel to Switzerland’s long-standing tradition of neutrality, framing Bitcoin as an independent alternative to the dominant global currencies.

He also pushed back against claims that Bitcoin lacks liquidity, pointing to the billions of dollars moving through international crypto exchanges every day.

LATEST: Swiss crypto advocates are abandoning their bid to force the Swiss National Bank to hold Bitcoin, falling short of the 100,000 signatures needed for a constitutional referendum. pic.twitter.com/q95Eio5uCq

— CoinMarketCap (@CoinMarketCap) May 8, 2026

But the SNB wasn’t persuaded. The bank has remained cautious, and European Central Bank policymakers have made their position clear — reserve assets must be liquid, secure, and stable.

Bitcoin’s price record hasn’t helped its case. The cryptocurrency has dropped roughly 7% so far this year, following a record $126k ATH in October 2025.

Based on reports from Reuters, the failed Swiss campaign reflects a wider disagreement across Europe. Policymakers have not reached any consensus on whether digital assets belong in central bank reserve strategies.

That debate has sharpened as crypto has become harder to ignore in global finance. Some institutions have been testing blockchain-based systems. Others remain focused on concerns about price swings, safety, and the ability to sell large holdings quickly without moving markets.

Bennaim’s team framed the campaign as more than just a Bitcoin bid. They wanted Swiss officials to seriously assess the technologies reshaping the financial sector. A future initiative, they said, remains possible.

AMINA is now the first regulated bank to support custody and trading for Canton Coin.

For institutional, corporate, and professional investors, digital assets are increasingly about infrastructure, scale, and execution discipline, not experimentation.  @CantonNetwork… pic.twitter.com/04b9Urx1Er

— AMINA Bank (@AMINABankGlobal) May 6, 2026

The campaign’s collapse hasn’t slowed the broader Swiss financial industry. AMINA Bank recently became the first institution registered with Swiss financial regulator FINMA to offer custody and trading services for Canton Coin.

Through the move, institutional clients gain access to the Canton Network, a platform built for tokenization, collateral management, and settlement.

Goldman Sachs, Visa, Citadel, and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation are among the organizations backing the network.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView