Vancouver mayor plans to make the city friendly for Bitcoin

As a seasoned analyst with over two decades of experience in the financial markets, I have witnessed the rise and fall of various asset classes, from the dot-com bubble to the housing market crash. The recent move by Vancouver City Mayor Ken Sim to make his city Bitcoin-friendly is an intriguing development that reflects the maturing of cryptocurrencies as a legitimate investment option.


As a researcher, I’ve observed an increasing trend: more and more people are adopting Bitcoin, and this movement has even reached the highest tiers of local government. In fact, I’m witnessing the ambition of a city mayor to transform their city into a Bitcoin-friendly urban landscape on a national scale.

Vancouver City Mayor Ken Sim intends to steer the western Canadian metropolis towards becoming a hospitable location for Bitcoin at the city council meeting scheduled for November 26.

As a researcher, I can express it this way: In my research, Ken’s proposal doesn’t involve setting up a Bitcoin reserve similar to the U.S., but rather, he aims to incorporate Bitcoin as a diversified financial asset for the city of Vancouver. Essentially, this means including Bitcoin in their investment portfolio and gaining potential benefits from fluctuations in the cryptocurrency market.

A variety of organizations such as pension funds, government-owned investment firms, and financial portfolio managers have already implemented their strategies in this regard. Certain influential figures are also advocating for Bitcoin’s use during political campaigns.

In the video conference, Ken proposed an approach for maintaining the city’s economic strength by expanding our financial options: Making the city receptive to Bitcoin transactions.

Vancouver and others move on to Bitcoin

Additionally, beyond Vancouver, various other U.S. states and urban areas have proposed or executed strategies relating to Bitcoin or Bitcoin ETFs. In the American market, institutional investors accumulated approximately $13 billion in Bitcoin ETF holdings.

One of the early financial bodies, Wisconsin State Investment Board, incorporated Bitcoin into its investment mix, more precisely, the iShares Bitcoin Trust Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) – IBIT. This ETF represents Bitcoin’s spot market and was introduced by BlackRock.

This year, it was announced that the Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) of Japan showed a willingness to invest in Bitcoin. Managing over 224 trillion Yen ($1.4 trillion), or roughly the world’s largest pension fund, GPIF’s interest signifies optimism towards Bitcoin’s future potential.

As a researcher, I’m noting that among the global giants in asset management, Goldman Sachs holds significant investments. Specifically, they have approximately $461 million invested in Innovative Beta Investment Trust (IBIT) and about $71 million in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC).

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2024-11-28 04:28