It’s a very simple question: Are central banks buying bitcoin? The answer, it turns out, is far more difficult than the question.

Certainly, the US Federal Reserve hasn’t been buying bitcoin. Nor is it on the balance sheet of any G7 central bank. Nevertheless, David Bailey of Bitcoin Magazine claimed that smaller central banks were buying the currency. Others also think central bankers are buying, including Michael Arrington.

When thinking about whether central bankers are buying bitcoin, El Salvador might be top-of-mind. Smartly, however, Bailey didn’t claim that El Salvador’s central bank had been buying bitcoin. Although it’s true that Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has bought the currency using public funds, he’s not a central banker.

As Bailey knows, El Salvador’s 5,782 bitcoins aren’t on the balance sheet to back its US dollar-pegged fiat, but rather in its more discretionary, fiscal treasury.

Instead, Bailey cited an article claiming that Iran’s central bank was buying bitcoin. This is a curious claim, not only because of its tiny size — Iran’s central bank has less than 2% of the assets of the US — but because the US and other major countries have sanctioned the entire country since 1979.

Moreover, Iranian central bankers have warned that buying bitcoin is illegal in the country — with an exception provided to domestically-mined bitcoin.

Read more: El Salvador leans on Bitfinex for daily bitcoin buy

Protos was unable to verify Bailey’s claim that the Iranian central bank owns bitcoin. Iran certainly has miners operating in its country, but only a single Decrypt article claims that its central bankers have ever purchased the asset itself. Iran has limited independent media, and its central bank doesn’t list bitcoin on its public filings. Bailey also apparently backpedaled on his claim shortly after making it in a live social audio space.

Another commentator with a dubious track record said Bhutan’s central bank was buying bitcoin and “confirmed this to me on Tuesday.” Indeed, Bhutan has operated a state-owned bitcoin mine that’s connected to Jihan Wu of Bitdeer.

However, it is unclear whether Bhutanese central bankers have ever purchased bitcoin.

Government possession versus central bank purchase

The question of whether central banks are buying bitcoin is far more specific than whether governments possess bitcoin. Even the US government possesses bitcoin with US Marshalls holding thousands of coins confiscated from the Silk Road and other criminal legal proceedings.

However, neither the Federal Reserve or any major central bank has purchased or holds bitcoin.

Other sovereign names surface when speculating about central bank bitcoin holdings. Suriname, Central African Republic, Venezuela, Kazakhstan, St. Kitts and Nevis, Belarus, and Estonia are common speculations.

In the end, however, there’s little evidence that any central bank — independent of other government agencies like fiscal authorities — actually owns bitcoin itself.

Maybe not bitcoin, but plenty of altcoins

Away from bitcoin, there are many central banks that own stablecoins and other crypto assets. Instead of purchasing the world’s leading crypto asset, several sovereigns have leap-frogged right into altcoins, using various blockchains to issue tokens like the Chinese e-CNY, Nigerian e-Naira, Zimbabwan ZiG, Jamaican JAM-DEX, or Bahamian Sand Dollar.

Because many central bank digital currencies (CBDC) are direct liabilities of the central bank, a percentage of the total supply of these digital assets is truly on the balance sheet of these central banks.

However, these assets aren’t bitcoin.

So yes, in summary, central banks certainly own crypto assets. There are government agencies that have bought or mined bitcoin. However, it’s not clear that any central banker has ever purchased bitcoin to hold on their balance sheet.

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Early 2023 was an incredibly difficult time for regional banks in the US — particularly crypto banks. Silicon Valley, First Republic, Signature, Silvergate, and Pacific Western Bank all either collapsed, closed down, or had their assets and liabilities purchased.

As the year continued, no further bank runs or collapses occurred; it appeared as though the worst of the regional banking crisis had passed.

Unfortunately, more regional banks are teetering again, including a couple that rushed in to purchase assets and liabilities from Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank — which serviced crypto and tech companies.

Yesterday, New York Community Bank’s shares fell sharply by almost 40%. The decline came after the bank announced that it was cutting dividends and charging off multiple real estate loans, according to American Banker. The bank, which purchased assets from Signature Bank in 2023, became a Category IV bank last year after crossing $100 billion in total consolidated assets.

Read more: The red flags of Axos, which banked CZ, Scott Purcell, and Alex Jones

Simultaneously, several mid-sized banks throughout the country are struggling to reconcile investor woes concerning their commercial real estate holdings — though exposure seems minimal compared to the dramatic events that punctuated February through May of 2023.

Lastly, First Citizens Bank, which acquired assets and depositors from Silicon Valley Bank last year, suggested that 2024 may be slow considering a decline in private equity, venture capital, and an overall downturn in the tech sector.

Banks regional or otherwise certainly aren’t facing the crises that they were last year, but it’s evident that the sector, along with real estate, is still dealing with the lingering effects of a tumultuous economic outlook over the past few years.

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Building society Nationwide is the latest banking entity to restrict customers’ ability to buy cryptocurrency in the UK, as it bans the use of a credit card to buy crypto and sets a $6,000 limit to any daily crypto purchases.

Nationwide works similar to a credit union in the US. As reported by Reuters, it set the £5,000 limit and credit card ban in response to growing regulatory concerns over the risks of buying crypto. 

UK banks are changing crypto policy, too:

• Along with Nationwide, HSBC, Santander, Barclays, and Natwest all blocked card payments to Binance following financial regulator uncertainty towards the exchange.
• Santander limited payments to crypto exchanges at £1,000 per transaction and £3,000 for every 30 days.
• Online bank Starling banned all transactions towards crypto exchanges, while online banks Revolut and Monzo still maintain an open stance toward crypto. 

Read more: Credit union Nationwide reimburses widow for crypto fraud after newspaper intervenes

Only last Monday, UK banking regulators announced proposals for new rules centered on the holding and issuing of crypto. Around the same time, a freedom of information (FOI) request revealed some UK crypto investors lost nearly $2.3 million following the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX empire.

Simon Jones, founder and chief exec of Investing Reviews, submitted the request. Jones warned that the reported losses are likely to be just “the tip of the iceberg.”

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NSFW internet stars say they’re relying on crypto to make a living after mainstream finance companies started terminating their accounts.

Adult performers believe that corporate America is shunning their industry and refusing to take them seriously, despite their content bringing in upward of $10 billion per year, reports the New York Post.

Financial giant Wells Fargo reportedly sent letters, dated August 25, to a raft of content creators, informing them that their accounts were to be closed. What’s more, the company gave no reason for the closures beyond saying that it “performs ongoing reviews of its account relationships in connection with the Bank’s responsibilities to manage risks in its banking operations.”

In order to continue to operate their businesses, a number of these performers say they’ve registered with a website called WetSpace, a platform that operates in a similar fashion to OnlyFans but processes payments in cryptocurrency.

The site currently accepts eight different coins, namely Avalanche, Tether, USD Coin, Ether, Binance Coin, MATIC, BUSD, and Dai.

Speaking to the Post, former nurse and WetSpace founder, Allie Rae said: “We are not at the mercy of the banks, because we are crypto and do not answer to them, therefore we do not have that threat hovering over us,” (our emphasis).

She also says that the site provides anonymity to users due to the fact they don’t have to use a credit card to sign up and view content. This, Rae says, “has proven to be of great value to this audience.”

Read more: OnlyFans founder prepares to ride the NFT wave hard

The banks’ assault on the adult industry is just the latest hurdle that performers have had to overcome.

Last year, OnlyFans threatened to shut down NSFW content amid concerns from payment processors (the company eventually changed its mind and continued to host the disputed content), and just last week, Instagram nixed the account belonging to pornography streaming site Pornhub.

This is despite, says Pornhub, it not breaking any of the Meta-owned platform’s rules around nudity or sexual content.

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