Vancouver Mayor Proposes Adding Bitcoin to City’s Reserves

Vancouver Mayor Proposes Adding Bitcoin to City’s Reserves

Vancouver’s mayor, Ken Sim, has proposed a motion to designate Bitcoin as a Strategic Reserve Asset for the city

Beaver Bullets:

• Vancouver’s mayor has proposed a motion to designate Bitcoin as a Strategic Reserve Asset for the city, reflecting a broader global trend among governments to adopt Bitcoin.
• Switzerland has approved legislation to study the benefits of mining Bitcoin.
• Analysts suggest bitcoin will continue to increase beyond USD $100,000. The shifting mainstream narrative around Bitcoin indicates a growing acceptance of the cryptocurrency.

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1. The Mayor of Vancouver has proposed a motion to make Bitcoin a Strategic Reserve Asset for the city. 

As hopes for a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (SBR) rise in the United States, the Bitcoin fever is spreading up North.

That’s game theory in action: once the wealthiest nation on Earth plans to onboard Bitcoin, governments across the world at the local, state and national levels scramble to follow suit before they’re left behind.

“I’d like to submit a motion… on Wednesday December 11th, for a motion titled “preserving of the city’s purchasing power through diversification of financial resources: becoming a Bitcoin friendly city,” said Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim during a Tuesday council meeting.

The motion still hasn’t been submitted, so there’s no details we know aside from the title. But the idea sounds simple enough: buy BTC to preserve purchasing power against the theft of inflation.

As reported by CTV News, local VanCity Bitcoiner Dustin McNulty spoke with Kim about the proposal on Thursday, saying “[fighting inflation] seems to be the goal” regarding the proposal.

“He’s very pro-Bitcoin,” added McNulty. “He wants Vancouver to come on board and be a friendly city to the space.”

Sim also accepted cryptocurrency donations during his 2022 Mayoral campaign, and he’s generally been in favour of boosting the city’s embracement of new technology. Sim’s words today sound like more than just political platitudes to get elected, and are part of a broader race to acquire BTC ahead of several other governments trying to do so.

Dennis Porter from SatoshiActionFund reported earlier this month that the U.S. state of Pennsylvania has already tabled Strategic Bitcoin Reserve legislation, and he now “guarantees” that multiple states will follow its lead.

A reminder that Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative Party Leader, is very likely to be elected Prime Minister in late 2025, and we know he already has a penchant for Bitcoin.

Following that, a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve for Canada may be a very real possibility.

2. Switzerland has approved legislation to study the benefits of mining Bitcoin.

The aforementioned Dennis Porter also confirmed this news, who was involved in educating members of parliament on the matter. The legislation would have the country study how Bitcoin mining can repurpose unused energy to stabilize electricity grids – much like it does in Texas already.

It’s yet another sign that global politics around Bitcoin are changing for the better. Just two years ago, the mainstream narrative was that Bitcoin miners were psychopaths who are destroying the environment and causing climate change. President Biden wanted to impose a 30% excise tax on Bitcoin miners.

Now? Governments want to HODL BTC, some like Bhutan want to mine BTC, and world leaders believe the industry can help their societies thrive. 

3. Bitcoiners are frustrated as BTC refused to crack USD $100,000.

Last weekend, BTC teased every Bitcoin bull as it hovered close to the market, cracking USD $99,600 amid extremely high volume before finally capitulating back to $USD 93,000 on Monday. What gives?

While BTC has already blown past the six-figure mark for us Canadians, the USD $100,000 threshold proves a tough psychological barrier for the trading world to overcome.

Indeed, the psychological impact of the number is visible on Coinglass.com: on many exchanges, piles of BTC owners have sell orders in place at or narrowly before the $100,000 mark. These are automated orders to sell their BTC holdings just as the price approaches a certain level. When a particular level like $100,000 is picked all at once for this, it creates a “sell wall” that makes that price difficult to break.

But with enough buying pressure, it will indeed crumble – just as the $10,000 sell wall did in 2017.

Besides, according to on-chain experts, USD $99,600 looks nothing like the top of the bull market.

“Bitcoin has not reached the overvalued levels that typically preclude the end of a bull cycle,” wrote CryptoQuant in a price report this week. The firm’s analysts say that not enough of the bitcoin supply is owned by new BTC owners yet, who are more likely to mark the top of a market as new holders capitulate to bitcoin’s volatility more easily.

From a “realized price” perspective – an analysis of the average price at which all BTC users bought their coins – CryptoQuant targets USD $146,000 (CAD $204,000) as the ‘cycle top’ this time around, meaning BTC can still appreciate by another 50%“Previous bull cycles have ended when retail investors buy aggressively, which is not the case today,” said the analysts.

Stay humble,

Andrew