Campaign founder Yves Bennaim is not giving up. Even after his group failed to gather enough signatures to force a Swiss national referendum on Bitcoin reserves, Bennaim said another push could follow.
Related reading
Switzerland’s system of direct democracy requires campaigns to reach a signature threshold within 18 months — his team didn’t meet it.
A daring proposal that did not get off the ground
The initiative would… Swiss National Bank to hold Bitcoin alongside gold and foreign currencies. Proponents argued that adding Bitcoin to the SNB’s reserves would reduce dependence on the US dollar and the euro.
Bennaim drew a parallel with Switzerland’s long-standing tradition of neutrality and proposed Bitcoin as an independent alternative to the dominant global currency.
He also pushed back against claims that Bitcoin has no liquidity, pointing to the billions of dollars flowing through international crypto exchanges every day.
LATEST: 🇨🇭 Swiss crypto proponents abandon their bid to force the Swiss National Bank to hold Bitcoin, falling short of the 100,000 signatures needed for a constitutional referendum. pic.twitter.com/q95Eio5uCq
— CoinMarketCap (@CoinMarketCap) May 8, 2026
But the SNB was not convinced. The bank has remained cautious and European Central Bank policymakers have made their position clear: reserves must be liquid, safe and stable.
Bitcoins price record hasn’t helped matters. The cryptocurrency is down about 7% so far this year, after hitting a record high of $126,000 ATH in October 2025.
Europe is still divided over crypto in central banks’ reserves
Based on reports According to Reuters, the failed Swiss campaign reflects broader discord across Europe. Policymakers have not reached a consensus on whether digital assets belong in central banks’ reserve strategies.
That debate has intensified now that crypto has become harder to ignore in the global financial world. Some institutions have tested blockchain-based systems. Others remain focused on concerns about price swings, safety and the ability to sell large stakes quickly without moving the markets.
Bennaim’s team framed the campaign as more than just a Bitcoin bid. They wanted Swiss officials to seriously assess the technologies that would reshape the financial sector. According to them, a future initiative remains possible.
AMINA is now the first regulated bank to support the custody and trading of Canton Coin.
For institutional, corporate and professional investors, digital assets are increasingly about infrastructure, scale and execution discipline, not experimentation.@CantonNetwork… pic.twitter.com/04b9Urx1Er
— AMINA Bank (@AMINABankGlobal) May 6, 2026
Swiss financial companies continue with Blockchain
The collapse of the campaign has not slowed down the broader Swiss financial sector. AMINA Bank recently became the first institution registered with the Swiss financial regulator FINMA to provide custody and trading services for Canton Coin.
Related reading
The move will give institutional clients access to the Canton Network, a platform built for tokenization, collateral management and settlement.
Goldman Sachs, Visa, Citadel and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation are among the organizations supporting the network.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView