Vancouver Shelves Bitcoin Plan as City Staff Deem it Illegal

Vancouver city staff are recommending that Mayor Ken Sim’s motion to explore converting city financial reserves into Bitcoin be dropped, citing legal limitations. The move comes after a December 2024 council vote, championed by Mayor Sim, to investigate making Vancouver “bitcoin-friendly.”

Motion Origins and Staff Concerns

In December 2024, Vancouver City Council passed a motion proposed by Mayor Sim to explore options for integrating Bitcoin into the city’s financial strategy, including the potential conversion of city reserves into the cryptocurrency. All ABC councillors voted in favour of the motion. The initial request was for staff to report back in the first quarter of 2025, but no public report was ever released.

However, a new report from city staff now recommends de-prioritizing the motion, along with 77 others passed since 2019, to free up resources and reduce spending. The staff report states that, under the Vancouver Charter, Bitcoin is “not an allowable investment asset for the City.”

Mayor Sim’s Previous Advocacy

Mayor Ken Sim has been a vocal proponent of Bitcoin, appearing on numerous podcasts in late 2024 and early 2025 to promote the idea of Vancouver embracing the cryptocurrency. He previously described Bitcoin as “the greatest invention ever in human history” and stated his commitment to the initiative was “a hill that I’m willing to die on.”

More recently, Sim has publicly downplayed the urgency of the Bitcoin motion, stating in January 2026 that public safety and affordability are the council’s primary focuses. CBC News has reached out to Sim’s office for comment on the staff’s recommendation and the status of a previously announced personal donation of $10,000 worth of Bitcoin from the Mayor and his family.

Council Response and Prior Concerns

Councillor Pete Fry, the sole councillor to vote against the original motion, expressed surprise that the staff report even addressed the issue, believing it had already been rejected. Despite supporting the staff’s recommendation, Fry as well voiced disappointment over the potential de-prioritization of a motion to install suicide-prevention fences on the Granville Street bridge due to funding constraints.

Concerns regarding the feasibility of the proposal were raised previously by the B.C. Municipal Affairs Ministry in December 2024, which informed CBC News that local governments are not permitted to hold financial reserves in cryptocurrency due to existing legislation governing permissible investments.

Next Steps

The city council will vote on the staff’s recommendations at a meeting scheduled for March 10, 2026. The full report outlining the proposed cancelled or scaled-back motions is publicly available here.