Interview with Aleš Michl, Governor
By Joasia E. Popowicz (Central Banking 29. 4. 2026)
Aleš Michl says bank’s digital asset ‘test portfolio’ is ‘not a political statement’
Aleš Michl has said that any concerns that the Czech central bank’s digital asset portfolio was lending credibility to the instruments were “misplaced”.
Speaking exclusively to Central Banking after delivering the keynote address at the Bitcoin 2026 conference in Las Vegas on April 28, the governor of the Czech National Bank (CNB) says “engagement is not endorsement”. In his speech, Michl had said the CNB’s $1 million holdings – which include bitcoin, a USD stablecoin and a tokenised deposit on the blockchain – amounted to “a test portfolio. Not a revolution. Not a political statement. A test.”
Since 2020, bitcoin has shown a positive correlation with equities, behaving more like a risk asset than an inflation hedge. The CNB purchased digital assets for the first time on October 30, when the price of bitcoin was $110,670. However, Michl says the subsequent fall in the price of the asset, which is currently trading at around $76,950, was neither concerning nor would it trigger a revisiting of assumptions. “We are not speculating on price movements,” the governor says.
Since the start of the Iran war in late February, bitcoin has risen by more than 18% from around $64,000 to just under $80,000, while the price of gold has fallen.
As part of his keynote, Michl said the CNB’s modelling showed a 1% allocation to bitcoin would increase expected returns while overall risk would remain the same. This was because bitcoin had a “low long-term correlation with many traditional assets and [did] not move in the same way”.
Asked to speak more about bitcoin’s evolving correlation to bonds, equities and gold, Michl says the CNB’s analysis on data from 2011–2025 showed “annual rolling correlations swung from highly positive to highly negative depending on the episode”, though average correlation with other assets was “very low”.
“But results depend heavily on the time period you choose, and different windows give very different answers,” says Michl. That uncertainty is why the bank board chose testing over immediate reserves inclusion, he adds.
“Our test portfolio is $1 million, 0.0006% of CNB assets, and that will not change during the assessment period,” the governor says. The CNB, he adds, is not there to call market lows or highs.
Michl has previously compared bitcoin to gold, which the Bank for International Settlements said last December has been behaving like a speculative asset rather than a safe haven. This led the BIS to warn of a “double bubble“ in equities and gold.
However, the governor tells Central Banking that bitcoin is neither a safe haven nor a risk asset. “For me, it is similar to venture capital,” he says. “Over the longer term, bitcoin can provide returns that are not closely linked to other assets.”
In terms of other digital currencies, Michl says that “perhaps, in the future, a tokenised Czech koruna” may have a future in central bank reserves. “We do not need a CBDC, because we are already highly digitalised thanks to the instant payment system we have introduced,” he says. “The koruna is and will remain our legal tender.”
On the threat of digital currencies to monetary sovereignty, Michl says monetary sovereignty rests on inflation credibility, fiscal discipline and the strength of the currency. “Understanding these technologies from the inside is part of that mandate.”