Swiss Bitcoin Reserve Initiative in a Nutshell

Transcript

Okay, thank you guys so much for joining us for our first after lunch session. Uh, please help me welcome up to the stage Eve Benim. I did it right. There we go. Um, to discuss the Swiss Bitcoin reserve initiative in a nutshell and he'll be assisted in the Q&A with Olga Khenova. Please help me welcome him. Thank you very much. So it's in a nutshell because normally we should be able to discuss for like two hours about it. It's a very complex topic and it's interesting. It's a very interesting and complex topic but I have 15 minutes. So um I'll try to be short. Uh I'll try to be to the point. Uh obviously it should

create a lot of questions and of course we can discuss many things after the presentation. So my name is Eve Benim. I study and uh teach Bitcoin. Bitcoin, it's blockchain, crypto, but mainly Bitcoin. And within Bitcoin, what's really interesting for me is the whole social political aspect of it. Uh political and geopolitical. Um so I I'm very interested in what's happening in El Salvador, in Bhutan, uh uh what's happening everywhere in the world. And of course, because I'm Swiss and I live in Switzerland, I'm interested in what's happening with Bitcoin in Switzerland.

Today um we're going to talk about the federal uh popular initiative which is a popular initiative. I don't know who is uh familiar with that term. Um it's a system in Switzerland where you can change the constitution. So uh basically you are as a citizen you're gathering a bunch of citizens with you and you go to the government and you say we want to change the constitution and the government asks uh a vote a referendum to the the whole country and if the vote is successful then uh you change the constitution and it's a very very big deal. It looks like it's a a fun project but of course it's a lot of work. Um and the idea of course is that um you have to have a good justification why you

want to change the constitution. You can't be just frivolous and and whatever anyway it's not going to be successful if you are. But uh what we're trying uh to present here and this is the title of the of the initiative is uh for a sovereign responsible and financially sound Switzerland. Um what we want is that uh Switzerland uh is um independent, financially stable, sound uh neutral. Um and of course in order to do that um it's not a big surprise I suppose uh we want that Switzerland gets more involved in Bitcoin and especially the Swiss National Bank. So this initiative is uh called the uh initiative Bitcoin or Bitcoin initiative.

And what it what it is is I'm going to go like this first. Um it's uh changing this is the text that is in the constitution. So uh article 99 you can look it up online. Um the paragraph 3 it says the national bank uh have to have reserves and some of its reserves needs to be in gold. And this is already in the constitution. And what we're adding is three words which is n in bitcoin. As you notice, it doesn't say how much. Uh, it doesn't say how. They can have one Satoshi, they can have, you know, half of their reserve. It doesn't matter because we're not telling them how to do their job. Um, but what we want is that they have nonzero Bitcoin the same way they have nonzero gold.

So just to go back to the mandate of the Swiss National Bank, the Swiss National Bank job uh mandate uh objective and main focus is uh price stability and Swiss Frank stability. Uh they're not in the business of making money. If they make money, it's going to help them uh to uh ensure their to to execute their mandate. But uh of course, it's not like an investment fund. Um it's not it's not either like a sovereign fund like some countries have where they invest for the country. In this particular case, the Swiss National Bank is becoming richer and richer and richer. Uh their reserves are huge. It's in the news. Maybe you heard about it. But their point is not to make money. Their point is to accumulate reserves so that they can

best execute their mandate later. And of course part of the mandate and this is this is the official mandate from the SNB's uh uh literature. um they they have to take uh into account uh what's happening in the world. They have to take into account what's happening uh in Switzerland and they have to take into account you know all kinds of financial changes that are happening in the world uh in order to best execute their mandate again. So um a little background about uh where we were uh where it's coming from and where it's going. The idea is of course that uh the uh the first time we talked about the initiative publicly was in 2021. Um it's it's a long time it's a long

process. Of course we don't want to rush anything. In 2022 we actually went to talk to the SNB. We went at the general assembly of because the SNB is is of course a company. it has shareholders so it has a general assembly and we went there and we presented uh why we thought it was a good idea and then in 2023 we came back but that's not important 2024 we came back and we also made a speech and we explained to them why it was important and then of course in 2024 lots of things changed I'll get back to that later um and at the end of 2024 we actually uh made the official publication and we started the process of the the popular initiative which is like a a political process that is very official. In 2025, we went back and uh

at the the general assembly and we explained to them, okay, now um quote unquote, you leave us no choice because uh we told you it would be a really good idea. You didn't believe us. Uh we told you again and we explained to you why it it would have been a good idea and it's still a good idea. You still didn't believe us. You dismissed us. Um, so now we have no other choice but we're going to go and talk to the Swiss population and we will uh ask the people if they support us in order to quote unquote again force you to have Bitcoin even though you're not uh really um uh positive uh for for for this uh project and uh where we're going because also a lot of people are saying it's a you know it should be something that is short and

efficient. um when there will be the vote uh if everything goes fine is going to be in five years. So it's a very long process. Even if now we're talking about it and uh we are trying to make as much noise as possible and we have a year and a half to collect those signatures um uh even if everything goes perfectly and very very smoothly uh the the Swiss population will not be asked to vote until at least three and a half but usually about five years from now. So it's a very long process. So what happened in 2022? We went there. At the time there was a different chairman and he told us that it's not a problem for them to have Bitcoin. So he actually uh as an answer he said uh it's it's really

a question of choice. Um they they are not uh forbidden to have Bitcoin at the moment. Um they're not forbidden to have anything pretty much. Um but they are saying we're not convinced. And part of the part of the the the reason why they were not convinced are the same that we got in 2025 and 2024 before that. Um first is that Bitcoin is not liquid enough and second that there is too much volatility for Bitcoin. So um I can go for three hours but I don't have the time about how uh Bitcoin is the most liquid asset they could own right now. Um we can discuss about it.

you can come to me and I'll explain to you why um and why fluctuation have absolutely no influence uh and should have no influence in their uh decision- making um but uh the idea is they're not the point of of this is that they are not saying uh we cannot do it they are saying we are not yet interested it's not convincing enough so why do we do the initiative the initiative of course I should start by who we are not and what we are not doing. Um, we're not against the SNB. We think that the the Swiss National Bank is doing a really good job at the moment. If you have been in Switzerland for, you know, a little time, you know that the Swiss Frank is really good. You know that the Swiss

economy is really comfortable. Uh, there it's very predictable. It's very stable. Uh, if you live in Switzerland, you're very happy mostly because the SNB is doing a really good job. So, we're not against them. Um, also, we're not a political party. We're not backed by a political party. We're just concerned citizens who are saying this is really important uh that you know that you're doing your job the best way possible and we think that you're doing a really good job but you have some tools that you could be using that you're not using and we think it's it it could be a problem in the future. So we think it's important to start now learning about those tools so that you can master them when you need them. Um and of course um why we are doing it. So the first point

of course we are doing it because we want to have a political debate. We want to have better education. We want more people to understand what's happening with Bitcoin but also what's happening with the SNB in general, what's happening with the Swiss Frank in general. A lot of people are talking about the Swiss National Bank like if it was the European Central Bank which is completely different or like if it was the Fed in the US which is completely different. They have completely different ways to function. Uh completely different problems. Um, and of course the the Swiss National Bank, a lot of people, even Swiss people, don't understand anything about it because, you know, it's kind of boring. But we think it's very important because if you're using the Swiss Frank, whatever the the SNB is doing is affecting you.

And if you are saving, you know, for your retirement, your children, whatever, um, you want the Swiss Frank to be strong but not too strong. Um one problem that they have just between bracket is that the if the Swiss Frank is too strong um because you know everybody wants the Swiss Frank um they uh it will affect our export it will affect our economy uh uh domestically. So they have a problem and uh they're doing a really good job but also it's a job that I don't want to have. So I'm not I'm really not trying to tell them what to do. Um the second thing is we want just to diversify. We want that uh Switzerland, the SNB understands that uh they are advocating for the best and the most diversified portfolio for their

reserves. And we're saying you're diversifying in everything except one asset. So it kind of doesn't make sense. I'll get back to all of these in one second. Um, with this diversification and and this uh understanding of Bitcoin, um, we want that Switzerland can benefit for better neutrality and better sovereignty uh, on a geopolitical international level. And this is also very very important. Uh, and you'll see in one second why we're really focused about that. Um, we want that uh, the SNB and Switzerland has uh, because it already has a lot of tech and finance expertise. If you were there um in the other room this morning um you heard a lot of things about the SNB and you can see that they're really uh leading uh on

a global scale about all kinds of projects that they're doing and you can see also like uh uh commercial banks and continental banks and postfinos they're really uh pushing the envelope and they're really uh uh showing the rest of the world that Switzerland is really advanced in that kind of uh uh industry and technology. Um but at the same time the SNB says this is something we don't want to touch. So there is also a disconnect with that. And of course uh last but not least with all this the end is of course that Switzerland could also show the way and lead by example the rest of the planet which we think is very important because this is something that Switzerland has been doing uh on many levels uh in terms of neutrality, democracy um and uh we think that with

Bitcoin there is another way for for Switzerland to position themselves on a global scale. So uh so the first one of course is political debate. I'm not going to go into that. It's pretty self-explanatory. In terms of diversification um so the reason why we launched in 2024 was that we didn't have an official justification from a different uh uh global actor that was uh uh I don't know uh pushing our narrative. Our narrative was uh it's a good investment and they were saying well it's not a good investment. So, who am I to say to the SNB what is a good investment or a bad investment? Of course, they know better than me. But

then in 2024, uh Black Rockck came uh into the scene and they launched their ETF. Of course, it's not just Black Rockck, but uh the the Bitcoin ETF uh took the world by storm and it was the most successful and the fastest growing and the biggest and like it's it's the record of ETFs. Um why? Because it's a good investment. that it's as easy as that. So, Black Rockck now says um if you have uh a normal standard portfolio with 60% 40%. Um 1 to 2% Bitcoin is reasonable exposure. So, in this particular situation now we're saying okay it's not just us uh individuals citizens who are saying it would be a

good investment or it would be reasonable exposure. It's Black Rockck. So um of course uh it's very difficult to argue against Black Rockck when it comes to investment because it's the biggest asset manager in the world. But it goes further than that. The problem with diversification is that um the Swiss National Bank today owns Micro Strategy. So you all heard about Micro Strategy Strategy, they changed their name. Um it's a company that buys a lot of Bitcoin and then they issue debt or stock uh as collateral. But their business is and this is from their website. They say we are the world's first and largest Bitcoin treasury company. So their business is the value of their business, the activity of their

business and the value of their share is literally the holding of Bitcoin that they own. And the SNB today because they own all kinds of shares from all kinds of companies and all kinds of assets, they own also Micro Strategy. They own 639,800 shares of Micro Strategy, which is 0.25% of the company. It's really tiny. But the thing is Micro Strategy, they keep buying Bitcoin. They buy, they buy, they buy. So today, they have a ton of Bitcoin, which means that indirectly by having all those shares, this this national bank today has the equivalent of 1,500 Bitcoin indirectly.

So it's good because they're exposed to the fluctuation going up and down, but they just told us they don't want the fluctuation. So it's really interesting because they're saying it's a good investment because it's a share and it's liquid. But the problem is Micro Strategy is uh traded in US dollar. It's denominated in US dollar and it's traded on an American uh jurisdiction on an American stock exchange. So they have all the the advantages uh of uh of Bitcoin but without I mean all the disadvantages of Bitcoin but without any of the advantages. So this is where we start having a problem and a disconnect because they're saying yeah but it's liquid and there is no volatility but in reality they have all the problems of Bitcoin without the advantages.

But it goes further than that because now I'm talking about one particular stock. So you're saying yeah of course they invest in dollars. Everybody invests in dollars. As long as you diversify and you have, you know, a very diversified flat portfolio, you have a little bit of everything, you should be okay. The problem is the total asset of uh the SNB is 854 billion uh Swiss Frank. Um but 88% is in uh foreign currency investment. Why do they do that? I'm not going to go into detail. There is Mr. Moser from the SNB. You should go and talk with him because he's a great guy. um he will explain better but what they want as I was saying earlier is that the Swiss Frank is not too strong. So if they

don't want the Swiss Frank to become too strong they have to invest in other assets in denomin denominations that are not the Swiss Frank. So of course they will invest in all kinds of uh foreign uh currencies but uh and and of course and it works and it's fine. It's a really good strategy, but the problem is 39% and 38% is in US dollar and euro. And this is not really super highly diversified because it's too much in just two uh different uh foreign currencies. Uh and of course uh we have a lot of negotiation with the with Europe. We have a lot of commerce of course, but we also have a lot of negotiation. If you read the news, you

see that Switzerland is discussing with the European Union about sovereignty, de neutrality and everything. And of course, the US is also telling us what to do more often than not because we we depend on the dollar like everybody else. So we have a problem with that. But it goes further than that. The problem is that if they were investing only in uh uh US uh US dollar denominated assets uh like shares and and you know all all kind even currency it would be one thing but they invest in um the American debt the European debt and the American debt. So more than half is government bonds. So what happens is if we sum it up a little bit roughly um Switzerland's

Swiss Frank stability is dependent on the debt of other countries and this starts to become a little bit uneasy when you have more than 50% of that. So and I just put gold just so you know in case a lot of people think that 50% is gold, it's less than 10%. So the problem with the American debt is this one. So this is my nothing stopped this train slide. On the left side you have the the US debt. Uh it starts from the 70s. It goes up up up up. It will never be reimbursed. It's not really a debt.

They're just issuing dollars. They debaseed the dollar and um this is how they print the money. I don't have any problem with that because I'm not an American and I don't use the US dollar. However, the second one is the interest of the debt. So, today a lot of people and a lot of institutions and the SNV. Yeah, it's never going to be 15 minutes. Forget it. Uh they are investing in uh American debt because they get the interest paid, which is really good. The problem is that today the American government has to issue more debt in order to pay for the interest of the debt. So it's a

vicious circle. It's like the snake that eats his own tail. So what happened um a little bit after uh the crisis of 2008 is that the debt is actually bigger than uh the GDP of the US and there is no way to go back to to to that. So um it cannot go back to below the GDP even if they create they have growth they create a lot of uh uh growth within the country. The problem is the debt is too high that the interest of the debt is just going to grow and the debt will grow in order to be able to reimburse the interest of the debt. So who am I to say that? You don't know me. I'm a nobody. I understand that. This is a problem from the 60s. This is what Sha

de Gaul was saying uh in in 1965. So it's really not a new problem. And what he's saying is the problem is if the money that everybody can use on a global scale is the money that can be printed at will by one country then uh there is no balance because they can print as much as they want. So it doesn't work. So what he was advocating was to go back to gold for international trade. So you're you're going to say, "Yeah, but that was the 60s. He's an old guy. I'm a nobody. Did you see what happened when Trump was suddenly saying um we're going to impose tariffs on Switzerland? Like what was it 64% 61% and suddenly everything collapsed. The shares are

collapsing. There will never be a Q&A. I'm sorry. Uh this this is what it is. Um and the problem that we have today is that in Switzerland this affects us. We have no other choice than to be affected by Trump uh changing uh international trade or issuing more dollars. Why? Because more than 50% of the the reserves of the Swiss National Bank is denominated in US dollars. This I'll go very quickly. You're going to say, "Yeah, but what about the US? What about China?" This is what's happening in the world today. So, and I'll sum up.

There is a lot of uh very um important technological advancements that are happening in the world today. There are lots of really good things that are happening. Not many people are talking about stable coins in this conference, but it's a really big deal. Why? Because all the big banks are going into stable coins. Visa, Mastercards are going into stable coins. Everything is moving to stable coins. The problem that you're not seeing is that all those companies they want to do stable coins in dollar and they're all American companies. So we also have a problem with that because that is taking the world and the Swiss National Bank will be at the mercy of Visa, Mastercard, JP Morgan, etc.

And we don't have to be because in Switzerland we are like super in advance. Still today we want to do stable coins and it's going to be good for our sovereignty. I'm not saying that. This is the uh Swiss banker association who is saying it. I move. I move. I move. And I have one one last. So what now? What's happening? If you're Swiss, you have to sign. Why? Because even if you're going to vote no, it doesn't matter. What you want is that there is a democratic debate and that there will be a vote to discuss about that thing. You want that we are actually talking about it because it will affect you. If you're not Swiss but you live in Switzerland or you work with Switzerland or you're

using the CHF at any level for your company, for your business, for your foundation, it will affect you. Even if you hate Bitcoin, the Swiss National Bank affects the Swiss uh economy and the Swiss Frank. If you're using the Swiss Frank or you're working in the Swiss economy or you plan to retire here or your children are doing studies in Swiss Alps, um there is no other choice but uh to to talk about it and to come to talk to me. Obviously, he's very very enthusiastic about this. Um he does have a table downstairs where you can come speak with him some more. I think like he said, he can talk about this for about three more hours very clearly and very passionately. So, I encourage you guys to go visit his table downstairs, talk with him, sign his uh form so that

this can get set up on the constitution. Um, thank you so much, Eve, and tell me why I'm wrong.