Czech National Bank starts $1 million Bitcoin investment

The Czech National Bank unveiled a $1 million test of crypto portfolio holding Bitcoin, a USD stablecoin, and a tokenized deposit.

What exactly did the CNB buy?

Announced on Nov 13, 2025, the pilot establishes a $1 million portfolio composed mostly of bitcoin, plus a USD-pegged stablecoin and a tokenized deposit. Moreover, the bank described the mix as a hands-on experiment to learn from blockchain assets, as echoed in a Reuters report.

The total amount invested will not be actively increased, said the bank, and the acquisition was made outside of the bank’s existing international reserves.

That said, the portfolio will be monitored rather than expanded while processes are tested.

Is this the first central bank buying bitcoin?

It marks a milestone for Bitcoin: for the first time, a holding appears on a central bank balance sheet.

However, CNB frames it as a test portfolio rather than a change in official reserves policy. The tokenized deposit pilot sits alongside a USD stablecoin holding within the same basket.

How did this plan come together?

The project was approved by the bank board on Oct. 30. In January 2025, Aleš Michl floated the idea publicly, saying, “I came up with the idea of creating a test portfolio in January 2025.”

Moreover, he said the aim was to assess decentralised bitcoin from the central bank’s perspective and its role in diversifying reserves, as outlined in Governor Michl’s thoughts on bitcoin.

The suggestion drew derision from Christine Lagarde.

Still, while part of the European Union and the ECB, the Czech Republic has not adopted the euro, giving its central bank a degree of autonomy. For context, see Lagarde’s remarks.

In addition, the pilot aims to test purchasing, holding, and managing blockchain-based assets, with the bank planning to share its experience over the next 2-3 years. That said, this is a small but notable central bank crypto experiment focused on operational learning for the payments system future.

If successful, this limited experiment could encourage more institutions to explore central bank bitcoin, even as Prague stresses it will not expand beyond the test for now.