Aleš Michl: A central bank. And bitcoin.
Speech by Mr Aleš Michl, Governor of the Czech National Bank, at The Bitcoin Conference 2026, Las Vegas, USA, 28 April 2026.
Good morning. Today, I want to talk about a strange combination: A central bank. And Bitcoin.
Most people do not put these two things together. I do.
In monetary policy, a central bank must be conservative. But it must think ahead.
When I became Governor of the Czech National Bank in mid-2022, inflation in my country was close to 20 percent. Twenty percent.
It was a serious moment. When I took office, I said we would bring inflation back to 2 percent within two years.
And we did. Not with magic. With discipline.
I said this clearly: Even before COVID, money was too cheap for too long. For too long, the system promoted borrowing. For too long, our currency the Czech koruna was weakened.
We changed that. We kept policy tighter for longer. We supported saving. And the Czech koruna became strong. That, for me, is conservative monetary policy. Our rule is simple: stay hawkish forever.