Vancouver’s Bitcoin plan backed by Mayor Ken Sim is, proper now, formally being shelved. Metropolis workers have really useful dropping the movement Sim launched again in December 2024 — the one which requested them to look into changing a portion of town’s monetary reserves into cryptocurrency. Employees concluded that below the Vancouver Constitution, Bitcoin is solely not a legally allowable funding asset, and so Vancouver’s Bitcoin plan is about to be closed out totally. The Bitcoin reserve concept, which additionally explored letting residents pay taxes and charges in crypto, bumped into authorized partitions nearly instantly after council handed it.
Vancouver’s Bitcoin Plan Faces Authorized Boundaries And Coverage Pushback
What the Employees Report Really Says
The report, heading to council on March 10, states that workers conclusively decided that Bitcoin shouldn’t be an allowable funding for town. And this, actually, was not information to everybody concerned. B.C.’s Municipal Affairs Ministry had already mentioned as a lot again in December 2024, when it advised CBC Information:
“The intent of the laws is that native authorities funds aren’t uncovered to undue danger.”
Vancouver’s Bitcoin funding proposal additionally drew skepticism from analysts following the story carefully. Kevin Lee, chief enterprise officer at crypto trade Gate, advised Decrypt:
“The authorized and treasury-related obstacles have been reportedly already understood from the outset, so the choice to finish the method doesn’t come as an actual shock.”
Dominick John, analyst at Zeus Analysis, went additional on why Vancouver cryptocurrency reserves — or any municipal Bitcoin push — faces a structural downside:
“Demand for Bitcoin isn’t the constraint, public steadiness sheet mandates are. Municipal treasuries are structured for capital preservation, which retains belongings like Bitcoin exterior the reserve toolkit. Till laws, accounting remedy, and custody frameworks evolve, cities like Vancouver will stay caught on the examine.”
Ken Sim Steps Again From Vancouver’s Bitcoin Reserve Push
Ken Sim’s Bitcoin plan had been something however quiet. Sim went on over ten podcasts selling Vancouver cryptocurrency reserves and calling Bitcoin “the best invention ever in human historical past.” The mayor himself described the Ken Sim Bitcoin plan as “a hill that I’m prepared to die on” — although, on the time of writing, that hill appears much more like a useless finish. Kevin Lee additionally famous that the Vancouver Bitcoin plan “appeared to replicate Mayor Ken Sim’s private pro-Bitcoin imaginative and prescient as a lot as a sensible municipal finance initiative.”
When CBC Information requested Sim concerning the Vancouver Bitcoin plan in January 2026, the tone was noticeably completely different:
“It’s tremendous essential. And proper now, public security, affordability — these are two massive issues that we’ve got to work on.”
Councillor Pete Fry, the one vote in opposition to the unique movement, mentioned the information barely stunned him:
“I already thought it was useless within the water.”
The Bitcoin plan now heads to a council vote on March 10. The push for a Vancouver Bitcoin reserve or any type of Bitcoin funding by way of municipal funds seems, additionally, to be over — no less than below present legislation.
