Czech Central Bank official expresses "doubt" about Bitcoin as a reserve asset

PANews reported on March 20th, according to Reuters, that Jan Kubicek, a member of the Czech National Bank (CNB) board, is skeptical about including Bitcoin in the bank's vast reserve assets due to concerns over its legal uncertainty and volatility. Earlier this year, CNB Governor Ales Michl proposed considering Bitcoin as part of their portfolio and the bank has begun analyzing possibilities for expanding asset categories within its reserve investment portfolio. However, Deputy Governor Eva Zamrazilova has stated that Bitcoin is not a suitable reserve asset.

In an interview on Tuesday, Kubicek said: "We will evaluate different categories of assets; Bitcoin is just one of them. I am quite skeptical about Bitcoin." He pointed out that the legal status of Bitcoin poses a problem and directly holding it would mean developing many new processes in areas such as accounting or auditing. He also mentioned volatility as another concern and assessing market price trends can be difficult. He added: "We cannot be sure whether the volatility of bitcoin in future years will resemble patterns observed over past decade because I suspect if more institutional investors accept bitcoin as an investment asset then its performance will differ from what we have seen so far."

Kubicek indicated that research into new types of assets by the bank could be completed before October which may explore holding international corporate bonds along with investing in more targeted stock indices (such as technology) and real estate investment funds.