3.18 Central Banks (Quietly) Discovering Bitcoin
From hostility to accumulation — how official-sector attitudes are shifting.
Central Banks (Quietly) Discovering Bitcoin
For most of Bitcoin's history, central banks dismissed it. That stance has been quietly reversing. El Salvador made Bitcoin legal tender in 2021 and has been buying steadily since. Bhutan has accumulated meaningful reserves from its hydro-powered mining. The president of the Czech central bank has openly discussed Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset.
For most of Bitcoin's history, central banks dismissed it. That stance has been quietly reversing. El Salvador made Bitcoin legal tender in 2021 and has been buying steadily since. Bhutan has accumulated meaningful reserves from its hydro-powered mining. The president of the Czech central bank has openly discussed Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs, approved in the US in 2024 and now also trading in Hong Kong and Brazil, pour institutional money into Bitcoin through familiar regulated wrappers. Pension funds, endowments, and even some sovereign wealth funds now hold Bitcoin exposure.
Behind the scenes, central banks face a classic game theory problem: whoever moves first signals weakness in the existing system, but whoever moves last gets the worst price. Some will accumulate quietly long before they ever admit it publicly — and the first major disclosure will reset everyone else's calculations.