Vancouver city staff are taking stock of which council motions to prioritize for the rest of the year, and one item at risk is Mayor Ken Sim’s pet project. In December 2024, the council approved Sim’s motion to explore ways to make Vancouver bitcoin-friendly, including converting some of the city’s financial reserves into the cryptocurrency, with all ABC councillors voting in favour. The motion asked staff to report back to council in the first quarter of 2025, but no public report has been released. Now a separate staff report proposes de-prioritizing some of the 78 motions passed since 2019 to free up resources or reduce spending, and the bitcoin motion is on that list.
Staff have concluded that under the Vancouver Charter, bitcoin is not an allowable investment asset for the city, and therefore recommend concluding this work. Sim’s 2024 motion argued that converting reserves would be financially responsible and that bitcoin was a potential hedge against inflation due to its capped supply and growing global adoption. He even pledged that his family would donate $10,000 worth of bitcoin personally to the city after the motion.
Experts cited concerns over the proposal, including the cryptocurrency’s volatility and the greenhouse gas emissions associated with blockchain. Sim, who is an investor in a cryptocurrency exchange, has described bitcoin as “the greatest invention ever in human history” and called the motion “a hill that I’m willing to die on,” though he has tempered his rhetoric recently. Fry, the only sitting councillor who voted against the bitcoin motion, said he was surprised staff included it and suggested it might be dead in the water, though he supported the de-prioritization overall. Councillors will consider the staff recommendations at the March 10 council meeting.
Leave a Reply