While there is much talk about the U.S. leadership in creating the Strategic BTC reserve, the European countries are not shying away from crypto, either. The Czech Republic will soon decide to create a Bitcoin reserve. Other countries and corporations are piling BTC, too. Table of Contents The Czech Republic to create a BTC reserve What about the U.S. Bitcoin reserve? Other players The Czech Republic to create a BTC reserve The Czech Central Bank Governor Aleš Michl will introduce the BTC acquisition plan on January 30, 2025. If the plan gets approved, the Czech Republic may become the first country in Europe to set a BTC reserve. The CNB holds over $146 billion. According to the plan, over $7.3 billion will be allocated in Bitcoin, meaning that 5% of the CNB balance will be held in Bitcoin. Just to put this into perspective: These BTC purchases alone would be equivalent to around 5.3 months of newly mined bitcoin supply. Probably nothing… — André Dragosch, PhD | Bitcoin & Macro ⚡ (@Andre_Dragosch) January 29, 2025 Michl voiced his interest in Bitcoin back in early January. At that time, he stated that he sees Bitcoin as an asset that potentially can be added to the CNB sheet for diversification’s sake. However, up until recently, it was not clear if the intentions were somewhat serious. Back then, the CNB advisor board rep Janis Aliapulios told Cointelegraph that the bank was n ot considering including BTC in the reserve and rather looking to diversify its portfolio via gold acquisitions. What about the U.S. Bitcoin reserve? Although many bitcoinists show support for the potential move by the Czech government without any bitterness, it’s fair to say that the news about the possible creation of the Bitcoin reserve by the Czech Republic caught some of the U.S. crypto maxis off-guard. For months, people were busy talking that Donald Trump will sign the Strategic Bitcoin reserve proposal around the time when he finishes his inauguration speech, and now they face the truth: the U.S. plan is yet to materialize while other countries are willing to have teeth in the game. Czech central bank meeting Thursday to vote on allocating up to 5% of reserves to Bitcoin 🤯 The United States can’t wait 6 months. We need to go now… pic.twitter.com/Lhe0HBvhbA — David Bailey🇵🇷 $0.85mm/btc is the floor (@DavidFBailey) January 29, 2025 So, how is it going in America? Is there a smell of SBR in the air? The short answer is “yes.” The BTC stockpile proposed to hedge against inflation and eliminate the national debt is going to be created this year. However, there are several competing models of this reserve on the table, and which one of them will be adopted is an open question. We’ll probably see several models existing simultaneously or in a hybrid model. During the Nashville crypto conference in the summer of 2024 Trump said if he gets elected, the U.S. will create a Bitcoin stockpile of seized bitcoins and won’t sell any ever since. However, the Bitcoin reserve proposal introduced by Sen. Cynthia Lummis is something else. Her act suggests that the U.S. government will buy 1 million bitcoins in five years and will keep all the bitcoins intact for 20 years. Considering the fact that Lummis became the head of the Senate’s Digital Assets Subcommittee, her proposal has a good chance of being accepted. Read more: Trump backs US leadership in crypto at Davos, Lummis chairs new Senate crypto panel Although many anticipated that Trump would say something about crypto in his inauguration speech and even sign the SBR legislation on day one in the Office, the POTUS preferred to move more cautiously. Instead of starting to collect bitcoins from the presidency start, Trump ordered the Digital Assets subcommittee to report the criteria for the Bitcoin stockpile by July. It gives time to other countries to steal the initiative. The federal government is far from being the only authority that strives to pile bitcoins for good. There are bills in Texas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania aimed to create local Bitcoin reserves. Unlike the Lummis proposal, the Texas and Ohio bills do not suggest purchasing bitcoins. The Pennsylvania bill seeks the allocation of 10% of the budget for Bitcoin acquisition. Read more: Texas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania to create the state-level Bitcoin reserves. What are these bills? Other players The idea of having a corporate, national, or regional Bitcoin reserve has gained more proponents around the world. The modern-day Bitcoin maxis compare Bitcoin to the land colonists dirty cheap bought from local tribes. Bitcoins are as scarce as the land. It creates FOMO among those looking to invest long-term and grow their investments as quickly as possible. Among countries, El Salvador is definitely the country that made the boldest move towards embracing Bitcoin – by adopting it as a legal tender on par with the USD in 2021. As of January 2025, no other country has dared to do this. El Salvador has a crypto reserve exceeding 6,000 BTC. There are talks and BTC reserve projects in other countries, too. Brazil, like the Czech Republic, is going to turn 5% of its national reserve into bitcoins. The legislation saw the light of day back in November. Bitcoins will additionally serve to back the local CBDCs. Russia and Japan were considering the possibility of setting the BTC reserves but shelved these plans to make a more informed decision later. Poland is having a presidential election this year and a libertarian candidate Sławomir Mentzen promises to create a Bitcoin reserve, however, it is not clear what are the odds of him winning the election. Poland should create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. If I become the President of Poland, our country will become a cryptocurrency haven, with very friendly regulations, low taxes, and a supportive approach from banks and regulators. BTC to the Moon! pic.twitter.com/izKc4spkkV — Sławomir Mentzen (@SlawomirMentzen) November 17, 2024 Several countries hold seized bitcoins without proposing a BTC reserve. The UK has over 61,000 BTC. Ukraine, which takes donations in crypto in the conditions of the ongoing conflict with Russia, has crypto on its balance too . It is rumored that China has over 190,000 seized bitcoins, however, some deny such a possibility and cite the lack of blockchain evidence as the proof. On top of this, many companies are creating their cryptocurrency reserves, refusing traditional fiat money treasuries. The biggest names include BlackRock and MicroStrategy, with half of a million and over 10,000 in Bitcoin, respectively. Both corporations compete and win the competition with the Bitcoin reserve of El Salvador, the only country that has a Bitcoin reserve as of January 2025. There are dozens of companies with smaller corporate Bitcoin treasuries as of today. The crypto race is here, as many governments and companies are eagerly engaging with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The thing is that the race is not limited by creating Bitcoin reserves. It includes various directions for developing new types of relations with cryptocurrencies, from benefiting from BTC mining to adopting crypto as legal tender. You might also like: More and more companies choose Bitcoin as the prime asset for corporate reserves
