Czech Central Bank Governor advocates including Bitcoin in central bank reserves, saying "This is the future"

BlockBeats News, April 29 — Ales Michl, Governor of the Czech National Bank, delivered a keynote speech at the Bitcoin 2026 Conference, explicitly advocating for including Bitcoin in central bank reserve assets. He stated that the central bank manages approximately $180 billion in reserves, and internal analysis shows that a 1% allocation to Bitcoin would increase expected returns, while its low correlation with other reserve assets would keep overall risk nearly unchanged. “Central banks and Bitcoin — most people wouldn’t put these two things together. I would.” Michl said, “This is the future.”

The Czech central bank has been at the forefront in this field. Michl first proposed using Bitcoin as a diversification tool for reserves in January 2025, then suggested allocating up to 5% of reserves to Bitcoin, and in November 2025, completed its first digital asset purchase through a test portfolio that included Bitcoin. Stepan Uherik, CFO of Trezor, pointed out that Michl’s speech rebutted the criticism that “Bitcoin lacks liquidity or is not secure enough,” and stated that the issue has shifted from “whether Bitcoin is ready” to “whether other central banks can afford to ignore this discovery.”

BlockBeats previously reported that the Czech National Bank (CNB) announced the creation of a $1 million digital asset pilot portfolio, covering Bitcoin, USD stablecoins, and tokenized deposits.