Mayor’s Crypto Craze Scrubbed: City Laws vs Meme Money Explosion

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Markets

Here’s the scoop:

  • Ken Sim, the good captain of Vancouver, decided that the best way to grow city reserves is to hitch them to the wild roller‑coaster that is bitcoin. The city charter, the Vancouver Charter, however, is more of a calm river than a racing track, and it says no.
  • City staff, the unsung heroes of paperwork, have declared that bitcoin is not an eligible asset. The only permissible beasts are government bonds, municipal securities, bank deposits, and-if you’re feeling generous-highly rated commercial paper. Anything that drips or sings in a chair counts as so‑called “conservative,” and bitcoin is definitely not included.
  • In a silver lining, the report tells us perhaps Vancouver will still accept bitcoin for taxes or fees as long as it’s immediately turned into Canadian dollars-so the next time you want to pay your property tax with a lump of crypto, you might just need a cash converter in hand.

In a dramatic twist reminiscent of a late‑night news bulletin, the Vancouver Council has decided to stall the motion that would have turned their city into the Bitcoin capital of the West. The staff was clear: under the charter, bitcoin is a no‑go. The only thing allowed is a stowaway of the investment world’s most respectable retirees: government and municipal securities, or something that smells like a bank deposit.

The charter’s Section 201 is the kind of document that would appear on a shelf next to a copy of “The Art of War,” meant to remind everyone that the city can only invest idle cash in the most boring, safe ways. The Municipal Finance Authority Act in BC just echoes the same blanket restrictions.

Eligible securities? Bonds, debentures, deposit certificates-basically anything that carries a nice, tidy fixed income. The law is so conservative it won’t even let a single shareholder or a single computer chain have a seat at the table. Stocks? Commodities? Cryptocurrencies? No thanks.

But Telegram channels might still be open to a question that hasn’t been answered yet: can the city play a softer brand game, welcoming bitcoin as a payment tool for taxes or fees, provided it’s converted instantly into Canadian dollars? The charter doesn’t bend on how payments are processed, so maybe there’s a loophole that even a city clerk could exploit.

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2026-03-06 11:51