Key Points
- Vancouver’s Mayor Ken Sim plans to make the city Bitcoin-friendly.
- Multiple cities and states are integrating Bitcoin or Bitcoin ETFs into their financial plans.
Vancouver’s Mayor Ken Sim is making strides towards turning the city into a Bitcoin-friendly hub. During a city council meeting on November 26, he expressed his intention to integrate Bitcoin into the city’s financial ecosystem.
Bitcoin as a Diversified Asset
While Sim’s plan doesn’t involve creating a Bitcoin reserve like some U.S cities, it does aim to diversify the city’s assets by including Bitcoin. In essence, the city would add Bitcoin to its investment portfolio, thereby gaining exposure to the cryptocurrency market’s price movements.
Several organizations, including pension funds, state investment managers, and financial asset managers, have already begun incorporating Bitcoin into their financial strategies. Some individuals have even begun using Bitcoin for campaign purposes.
Bitcoin Adoption Across Cities
Vancouver isn’t the only city considering the integration of Bitcoin or Bitcoin ETFs. Numerous states and cities in the United States have already either planned or implemented similar strategies. Institutional investors in the U.S have acquired $13 billion in Bitcoin ETFs.
The State of Wisconsin Investment Board was one of the first institutions to include Bitcoin in their portfolio, specifically the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT), a Bitcoin spot ETF launched by BlackRock.
Earlier this year, Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), the world’s largest pension fund, expressed an interest in including Bitcoin in their portfolio. GPIF manages assets worth up to 224 trillion Yen or approximately $1.4 trillion, indicating a positive future sentiment towards Bitcoin.