Key Takeaways
- The Vancouver Metropolis Council has authorized a movement to make the town “Bitcoin-friendly.”
- Mayor Sim advocates for the adoption of Bitcoin as a way to guard the town’s buying energy from inflationary pressures.
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Vancouver Metropolis Council has greenlit a proposal to discover the incorporation of Bitcoin into municipal monetary operations, together with the opportunity of holding Bitcoin as a reserve asset and accepting it for funds.
The movement, submitted by Mayor Ken Sim, handed throughout a council meeting on Wednesday with the help of six councilors, successfully directing metropolis workers to discover the feasibility of creating Vancouver a “Bitcoin-friendly metropolis.”
Mayor Sim, who owns shares in Coinbase International Inc., believes that adopting Bitcoin as a part of the town’s monetary technique will assist safeguard its buying energy in opposition to inflation. He has pledged to donate $10,000 price of Bitcoin to the town.
“Our household goes to donate $10,000 to the Metropolis of Vancouver within the type of bitcoin and that is going to be a present to the town that we love,” he mentioned throughout the assembly. “We completely imagine in the advantages of this and we’re placing our cash the place our mouth is.”
The proposal has faced opposition from native specialists and authorities officers attributable to Bitcoin’s value volatility.
The Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs said that neither the Neighborhood Constitution nor the Vancouver Constitution acknowledges crypto as cost for “municipal providers or different transactions.” The ministry additionally confirmed that native governments can not maintain monetary reserves in digital property.
Inexperienced Councilor Pete Fry, who opposed the movement, expressed issues about illicit actions.
“Within the absence of any actually particular acknowledgement of … the very severe points round cash laundering and the historical past on this metropolis, I don’t suppose this can be a step in the fitting path,” he mentioned.
Metropolis workers is now tasked with analyzing the initiative and delivering an in depth report by the top of Q1 2025, analyzing the dangers, advantages, and sensible concerns of Bitcoin asset administration. The plan consists of consulting with monetary advisors, crypto specialists, and group stakeholders.
The push for Bitcoin adoption has been on the rise since Donald Trump’s election victory. Trump has expressed intentions to create a extra favorable regulatory setting for the crypto trade.
The development is now increasing on a worldwide scale, with discussions round a strategic Bitcoin reserve gaining traction amongst different nations’ lawmakers. Final month, Switzerland’s Canton of Bern passed a proposal to discover Bitcoin mining as an answer to extra vitality utilization and energy grid stabilization.
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