The city council in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada has passed a motion to explore the possibility of accepting Bitcoin (BTC) for payment of taxes and fees, as well as establishing a Bitcoin reserve.
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The motion, put forward by Mayor Ken Sim, calls for “diversifying the City of Vancouver’s financial reserves and payment options to include Bitcoin.” The motion, which passed a vote, calls for city staff to report back to council by the end of the first quarter of 2025 on the feasibility of making Vancouver a “Bitcoin-friendly city.”
“It would be irresponsible for the City of Vancouver to not look at the merits of adding Bitcoin to its strategic assets to preserve the city’s financial stability,” reads the mayor’s motion. Adoption of the motion marks a significant change in Vancouver’s policy towards Bitcoin. The city’s previous mayor, Kennedy Stewart, tried to ban Bitcoin ATM bank machines in 2019.
Vancouver was home to the world’s very first Bitcoin ATM. It is also the hometown of Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the co-founder and former CEO of privately held Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange.
A First for Canada
The motion marks a first for a Canadian municipality. While other cities across the country have discussed cryptocurrencies, none to date have adopted resolutions that consider accepting payments in Bitcoin or other digital assets.
The Bank of Canada earlier this year decided against creating a central bank digital currency (CBDC) after exploring the issue and authoring a White Paper on the subject. News of Vancouver’s pro-Bitcoin motion comes a day after shareholders of Microsoft (MSFT), which is headquartered in neighboring Seattle, Washington, voted against adding Bitcoin to the company’s balance sheet.
The price of Bitcoin has risen 130% this year.
Is Bitcoin a Buy?
Most Wall Street firms don’t offer ratings or price targets on Bitcoin, so we’ll look at the cryptocurrency’s three-month performance instead. As one can see in the chart below, the price of BTC has risen 68% in the last 12 weeks, which is a strong result.
