Swedish Lawmaker Asks Finance Minister to Consider Holding Bitcoin in Reserves

Swedish lawmaker Rickard Nordin has put forward a provocative question to the country's finance minister: should Sweden consider keeping Bitcoin in its reserve portfolio?

A Swedish lawmaker, Rickard Nordin, has posed a pointed question to the country’s finance minister: should Sweden be considering holding Bitcoin in its reserve portfolio?

In a formal request to Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson, seen by Blockworks on Wednesday, Nordin urged the government to examine the potential of digital assets in national fiscal strategy.

The inquiry, officially listed as 2024/25:997, requires a formal answer from the minister by April 16. So far, the ministry hasn’t provided any public response to Nordin’s question.

As interest in crypto continues to grow—especially in the U.S., where several states and officials have floated the idea of buying BTC as part of state-level treasury strategy—Nordin highlighted how some of the concepts discussed could be relevant to Sweden.

“In the U.S. today, there are proposals to invest in Bitcoin in order to diversify state treasuries and prepare for the next economic downturn,” Nordin wrote. “It’s also being discussed as a way for regimes in poor countries to save value for the future, especially in countries where the currency is being devalued due to hyperinflation or political instability.”

Instead of suggesting Sweden buy Bitcoin, however, Nordin proposed a cost-free method for integrating BTC into state holdings: keep any coins seized by authorities, rather than selling them off.

He noted how agencies like the DOJ and IRS have been increasingly accumulating large amounts of cryptocurrency through asset seizures—without spending any public money to acquire it.

“The U.S. government now holds an estimated $7 billion to $15 billion in Bitcoin, which was seized by various agencies,” Nordin wrote. “These funds are currently being liquidated at low prices, and the revenue from these sales is used to fund the government’s operations.”

He added that, despite this, the Treasury Department still has no strategy for managing these digital assets.

While Sweden’s central bank, Sveriges Riksbank, currently sticks to more conventional assets like foreign currencies and gold in its reserve strategy, Nordin believes this conservative stance should be reexamined.

“Given the rapid technological advancements and the changing global economic landscape, it’s crucial to reassess and adapt our financial strategies accordingly,” the lawmaker said.

This case in point: El Salvador famously began integrating Bitcoin into its legal tender system in 2021, while more developed economies are still in the process of figuring out how—if at all—digital assets will fit into their financial systems.

As such, Nordin’s suggestion to Svantesson could offer Sweden a unique middle path: kicking off integration of Bitcoin into state reserves through asset retention, without committing taxpayer funds.