Vancouver City Council in Canada Passes Motion to Become a “Bitcoin Friendly City”

Odaily reports that on Wednesday, the Vancouver City Council passed a motion to become a "Bitcoin-friendly city" and explore its potential municipal uses. In a Tuesday phone interview before the council vote, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim said: "I've wanted to do this for a while, but I felt the public wasn't ready for the conversation." His decision to give more voice to cryptocurrencies comes as "all of a sudden, with what's happening in the U.S., a lot of other nation-states and provinces and states are saying they're going to do the same," Sim said: "We want to be out in front." Since announcing the motion in late November, Sim has been a staunch Bitcoin advocate, calling it "the greatest invention in human history" and saying traditional fiat currencies "will go to zero." He believes Bitcoin "could" be worth only a fraction of its future value, but he stressed that he is not qualified to provide investment advice. (Bloomberg) Previous reports indicate that Ken Sim, who became mayor of Vancouver in 2022, announced that the city of Vancouver, Canada, plans to add Bitcoin to its balance sheet as part of its efforts to diversify its investments. At the Vancouver City Council meeting on November 26, Mayor Sim submitted a motion notice, scheduled to be proposed on December 11, titled "Preserving the City's Purchasing Power through Financial Resource Diversification: Becoming a Bitcoin-Friendly City." As of November 27, the motion does not appear to have been published on the city government's website, and the Vancouver Mayor's Office declined to comment. It is currently unclear whether the Vancouver mayor's motion is a response to local and federal governments in the U.S. considering legislation to establish Bitcoin reserves.