{"id":75256,"date":"2026-03-06T15:32:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T15:32:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=75256"},"modified":"2026-03-06T15:32:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T15:32:03","slug":"vancouver-mayors-bitcoin-reserve-dream-hits-legal-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=75256","title":{"rendered":"Vancouver Mayor\u2019s Bitcoin Reserve Dream Hits Legal Wall"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Vancouver city staff have recommended that councillors drop Mayor Ken Sim\u2019s Bitcoin motion, which ordered work on accepting payments in BTC and exploring a Bitcoin reserve for part of the city\u2019s funds.<\/p>\n

Bitcoin: \u201cNot An Allowable Investment Asset\u201d<\/h2>\n

In a report released on March 2 reviewing outstanding council directions<\/a>, the Vancouver staff has deemed Bitcoin as a \u201cnot an allowable investment asset for the City\u201d, suggesting that the Mayor Sim\u2019s motion to turn Vancouver into a \u201cBitcoin friendly city\u201d should be concluded. The report also asks council to de-prioritize some of the 78 motions passed since 2019 part of a broader clean\u2011up of outstanding directions.<\/p>\n

The rationale for this, as stated by the report, is a \u201creprioritization of staff and resources\u201d and the need for \u201ccoordinating and aligning work with related initiative(s)\u201d: the goal is to reduce the city\u2019s spending by optimizing internal capacity.<\/p>\n

City staff back these conclusions with the Vancouver Charter, the provincial law that sets out how municipal funds can be invested.<\/p>\n

Inside The Vancouver Charter<\/p>\n

The B.C. Ministry of Municipal Affairs has clarified<\/a> that the Community Charter and the Vancouver Charter \u201cdon\u2019t recognize cryptocurrency as payment for municipal services or other transactions,\u201d so cities shouldn\u2019t treat BTC like normal money on their balance sheets.<\/p>\n

The ministry has also stated that local governments \u201care not permitted to hold financial reserves in cryptocurrency\u201d because crypto is not on the listed of permitted investment vehicles laid out in the provincial legislation.<\/p>\n

Under section 183 of the Community Charter,<\/a> which the province applies to local governments\u2019 funds, eligible investments are cited as things like Municipal Finance Authority securities, pooled funds, federal or provincial bonds, guaranteed bank products and similar high\u2011grade instruments. There is simply no legal category that would cover Bitcoin or other volatile digital assets, which doesn\u2019t mean that it\u2019s prohibited: it simply doesn\u2019t exist in the law.<\/p>\n

The Bitcoin Dream: A Bitcoin Friendly City<\/h2>\n

Mayor Sim\u2019s Bitcoin motion pushed through in December 2024.<\/a> Sim, who\u2019s an investor in a cryptocurrency exchange, said he believed investing in Bitcoin was \u201cthe financially responsible\u201d thing to do amidst inflation and market volatility. He went so far as to pledge a personal 10,000\u2011dollar Bitcoin donation to seed a municipal reserve, publicly lauding BTC as one of the most important financial innovations of the era.<\/p>\n

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It would be irresponsible for the City of Vancouver to not look at the merits of adding bitcoin to the city\u2019s strategic assets to preserve the city\u2019s financial stability.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What\u2019s Next?<\/h2>\n

The staff was supposed to report back to council in the first quarter of 2025, but until the cited report, no other was made public.<\/p>\n

The Vancouver city staff recommendation will land at council on March 10. Mayor Sim will be forced to decide whether to burn political capital defending his BTC agenda or watch his Bitcoin dreams be shelved and dismissed by his own administration.<\/p>\n

\"Bitcoin,<\/p>\n

Cover image from ChatGPT, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vancouver city staff have recommended that councillors drop Mayor Ken Sim\u2019s Bitcoin motion, which ordered work on accepting payments in BTC and exploring a Bitcoin reserve for part of the city\u2019s funds. Bitcoin: \u201cNot An Allowable Investment Asset\u201d In a report released on March 2 reviewing outstanding council directions, the Vancouver staff has deemed Bitcoin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-75256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}