In brief
- Two members of the Sweden Democrats have submitted a motion calling for a study into creating a national Bitcoin reserve.
- Proponents said it could position Sweden for a “potentially disruptive shift in the global financial infrastructure.”
- The U.S. and other nations have already explored or held strategic Bitcoin reserves.
Two members of the Sweden Democrats, the Riksdag’s right-leaning, second-largest party, have submitted a motion urging the government to examine whether Sweden should create a national Bitcoin reserve.
The motion, filed on Oct. 1 by Dennis Dioukarev and David Perez, calls for an investigation into how to build a strategic Bitcoin reserve and which authority is appropriate to manage it. It also proposes that the government confirm it does not intend to change the definition of legal tender or introduce a central bank digital currency.
The lawmakers argue that Bitcoin could serve as a complement to gold and foreign exchange reserves. They describe the cryptocurrency as “digital gold” with the potential to diversify state holdings and provide inflation protection.
“By building a strategic Bitcoin reserve, Sweden is positioning itself for a potentially disruptive shift in the global financial infrastructure,” the proposal stated.
National Bitcoin reserves around the world
Momentum for state-level Bitcoin reserves has grown internationally, particularly since March, when U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing a national Bitcoin reserve funded with confiscated assets.
While countries like Bhutan and El Salvador already held Bitcoin prior to this, the shift in U.S. policy has prompted a rethink of other nations around their approach to cryptocurrencies.
Several countries, such as the UK, China and Finland, have unofficial “reserves” of confiscated digital assets seized during criminal investigations, but politicians in countries like Poland and Latvia have also floated the idea of establishing strategic Bitcoin reserves.
Last week, Kazakhstan launched a state-backed crypto reserve containing BNB (BNB is the native token of the BNB Chain created by the exchange Binance, which signed an MOU with the Kazakh government in 2022).
At the U.S. state level, Texas, Arizona and New Hampshire have passed laws to create their own reserves.
The Swedish proposal comes as other lawmakers in Sweden have raised similar calls. Earlier this year, Dioukarev and another MP, Rickard Nordin, separately pressed Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson to reconsider Sweden’s cautious stance in light of Bitcoin’s growing role abroad.
Proponents in Sweden argue that adding Bitcoin to national reserves could reduce overall correlation among assets already in its reserve.
“Gold and foreign exchange reserves are traditional asset classes that are correlated with political, geopolitical and economic risks. In contrast, Bitcoin’s value is not driven by the monetary policies of individual states,” the motion noted—though Bitcoin does in fact follow general market trends.
Financial institutions have also weighed in. A recent paper from Deutsche Bank Research said central banks are reassessing their reserves amid inflation and geopolitical uncertainty. “While Bitcoin still faces many critics, it has increasingly become a household name,” the bank wrote, citing greater liquidity and institutional involvement.
But it warned that the asset remains volatile, vulnerable to fraud and relatively illiquid compared with gold.
The U.S. plan has also drawn criticism, with opponents arguing it could benefit political leaders personally and expose markets to instability.
In March, the late Democratic Congressman Gerry Connolly wrote that the reserve constituted “unsound fiscal policy” offering “no discernible benefit” to Americans. He added it acted merely as a “get rich quick scheme” for Trump.
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