Vancouver city staff have recommended that councilors abandon Mayor Ken Sim’s Bitcoin proposal, which would have called for accepting payments in BTC, and work on finding a Bitcoin reserve for part of the city’s funds.
Bitcoin: “Not an Acceptable Investment Asset”
In a report released March 2 reviewing outstanding council directives, Vancouver staff deemed Bitcoin “not an acceptable investment asset for the city,” suggesting that Mayor Sim’s proposal to transform Vancouver into a “Bitcoin Friendly City” should be scrapped. The report also calls on the Council to de-prioritize some of the 78 resolutions passed since 2019 as part of a broader cleanup of outstanding directives.
The rationale for this, as stated in the report, is the need to “reprioritize staff and resources” and “coordinate and align work with related initiatives”: the goal is to reduce city spending by optimizing internal capacity.
City staff support these findings with the Vancouver Charter, the provincial law that dictates how municipal funds can be invested.
inside vancouver charter
The BC Ministry of Municipal Affairs has clarified that the Community Charter and the Vancouver Charter “do not recognize cryptocurrencies as payment for municipal services or other transactions,” so cities should not treat BTC like normal money on their balance sheets.
The ministry also said that local governments are “not permitted to hold financial reserves in cryptocurrencies” as crypto is not on the list of permitted investment vehicles set out in provincial legislation.
Under section 183 of the Community Charter, which the province applies to local governments’ funds, eligible investments are cited as things like Municipal Finance Authority securities, pooled funds, federal or provincial bonds, guaranteed bank products and similar high-grade instruments. There is no legal category that would cover Bitcoin or other volatile digital assets, which does not mean it is prohibited: it simply does not exist in law.
Bitcoin Dream: A Bitcoin Friendly City
Mayor Sim’s Bitcoin proposal moves forward in December 2024. Sim, who is an investor in a cryptocurrency exchange, said he believes investing in Bitcoin is the “fiscally responsible” thing to do amid inflation and market volatility. He went so far as to personally pledge to donate $10,000 of Bitcoin to start a municipal reserve, publicly lauding BTC as one of the most important financial innovations of the era.
It would be irresponsible for the City of Vancouver to ignore the merits of adding Bitcoin to the city’s strategic assets to maintain the city’s financial stability.
What will happen next?
Staff were due to report back to the council in the first quarter of 2025, but until the cited report, none had been made public.
The City of Vancouver staff’s recommendation will come to council on March 10. Mayor Sim will be forced to decide whether to burn political capital defending his BTC agenda or let his Bitcoin dreams be quashed by his own administration.
BTC's price trends to the downside on the daily chart. Source: BTCUSD on Tradingview
Cover image from ChatGPT, BTCUSD chart from TradingView
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