Amid the global efforts to adopt crypto, members of the Riksdag, the Swedish Parliament, are urging the country’s finance minister, Elisabeth Svantesson, to evaluate a Bitcoin (BTC) Reserve for Sweden’s holdings.
Swedish Lawmaker Proposes Bitcoin Reserve
On Monday, Member of the Swedish Parliament and the Finance Committee Dennis Dioukarev sent a letter to the finance minister asking her to consider adding crypto to the country’s national reserve.
Dioukarev posted the translated letter on X, highlighting the global trend of countries purchasing or refraining from selling their seized digital assets, including BTC. He also noted that the US is establishing a Bitcoin Reserve, which raises the question of whether the country should develop a similar strategy to create an SBR alongside Sweden’s gold and currency reserve.
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on March 6 to create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a “Digital Asset Stockpile” within the US Department of the Treasury. The order mandates that the initiatives would be funded by crypto seized from government criminal and civil forfeiture proceedings, including the US’ 200,000 BTC holdings and other digital assets already owned by the Treasury Department.
The lawmaker suggested following the US steps and not using taxpayers’ money to purchase Bitcoin. Instead, he proposed that Swedish authorities could be instructed to transfer seized BTC to Sweden’s central bank.
He closed the letter by asking the finance minister if “is this something that the minister and government are considering?”
In an X post, a crypto community member questioned whether she has “an honest and somewhat complete understanding of the technology in question,” suggesting that it would be “a serious uphill battle” otherwise.
Global BTC Reserve Trend
Another member of the Riksdag, Rickard Nordin, recently sent a similar letter asking the finance minister to include BTC in Sweden’s reserves to diversify its currency holdings.
As reported by Bitcoinist, the lawmaker questioned if the minister and government have “considered the possibility of allowing the Riksbank to include bitcoin in Sweden’s currency reserve, and will the Minister and the Government act to give the Riksbank such an opportunity?”
In the April 7 letter, Nordin also noted that several international players consider Bitcoin a store of value and hedge against inflation. Additionally, Nordin underscored that BTC is used as a means of payment and “an important way for freedom fighters to manage payments when under the repression of authoritarian regimes.”
For instance, Brazil’s federal deputy, Eros Biondini, introduced a bill in November to create a national BTC reserve to diversify the financial assets of Brazil’s National Treasury and “guarantee the country’s economic sovereignty.”
Italy and the Czech Republic have recently seen support for BTC reserves, while multiple US states have been in a race to establish SBRs, with many of them still advancing their bills through the legislative process.
This trend has opened the discussion to include BTC in government foreign exchange reserves despite Sweden’s tradition of “conservative and carefully managed foreign exchange reserves, mainly consisting of foreign currencies and gold.”
Ultimately, Nordin’s letter states that Svantesson has until Wednesday, April 16, to reply, while Dioukarev’s offered the finance minister until Wednesday, April 23, to answer his question.
