Matthew Ferranti, a professor at Harvard University, argued that central banks should hold bitcoin (BTC) reserves in small amounts, according to research he presented a few days ago.

Ferranti sees it as reasonable for central banks to hold small amounts of bitcoin in their reserves. He also points out that those who should have much more BTC are those countries financially sanctioned by great powers such as the United States or the European Union, the study highlights.

The Harvard professor’s research explores bitcoin’s potential to serve as an alternative hedging asset, although he finds that gold provides a more useful hedge against sanctions.

“If a central bank cannot acquire enough physical gold to hedge against sanctions risks, the option of holding bitcoin is further increased, suggesting that gold and bitcoin are imperfect substitutes,” the study highlights.

The Harvard professor stressed that central banks would benefit from keeping bitcoin and gold in their reserves, during an interview.

In that sense, Ferranti gave as an example that bitcoin could work for countries that have a “very poor infrastructure, which does not have the capacity to store large amounts of gold, or countries whose reserves are so large that they simply cannot buy enough gold,” he said in an interview.

One of the most recent cases that mixes bitcoin and economic sanctions arose after the war between Russia and Ukraine, which resulted in Moscow being financially punished by the United States and Europe, a fact reported by CryptoNews.

Now Russia is evaluating the use of the digital asset for foreign trade and bypassing regulations, in order to comply with its international commitments.