According to The Block, at the Bitcoin 2026 conference in Las Vegas, Czech National Bank Governor Ales Michl delivered a keynote titled "Diversifying Central Bank Reserves With Bitcoin," arguing that central banks should consider holding bitcoin as a portfolio diversifier. Michl said the CNB's internal analysis found that adding just 1% bitcoin to its $180 billion reserve portfolio would increase expected returns while keeping overall risk roughly unchanged due to bitcoin's low correlation with traditional reserve assets.
The CNB has already moved ahead of its peers on crypto adoption. Michl first proposed bitcoin as a reserve diversification tool in January 2025, later won board approval for deeper analysis, and oversaw the CNB's first digital asset purchase in November 2025 through a test portfolio that included bitcoin. "This is the future," Michl asserted on stage, acknowledging volatility but arguing that concentration risk exists in traditional assets as well.
