Eric Adams once converted his government paychecks into cryptocurrency. Running his failed campaign for reelection, Adams lined his campaign coffers with donations from crypto investors. He flew to the Somos conference in Puerto Rico in the private jet of a crypto billionaire.
And now, the former mayor of New York City has transitioned from crypto evangelist to crypto salesman.
Not two weeks after he left office, Adams returned from a short international trip (hitting Dubai and the Democratic Republic of the Congo) to announce a new cryptocurrency venture. The “NYC Token,” as Adams’ new ballcap and a large banner in Times Square pronounced, is a new digital coin – a virtual asset that is worth as much as people’s willingness to buy and sell it using blockchain.
Adams’ vision for the new digital token was presented as a dizzying amalgam of some of latent passions from his time at City Hall: fighting antisemitism, generating patriotic sentiment, teaching kids about the emerging financial technology, and, newly, for some reason, preaching Walmart as a case study in innovation.
If any kids were tuning into Monday’s press conference hoping to start their education on how crypto works, they would have left deeply confused.
“One focus we have on this New York City coin is to use the revenue generated to address anti-American, antisemitism, to teach our children how to embrace blockchain technology, how to run cities correctly, as Walmart is using blockchains to deal with their food chain and transparency,” Adams said.
Where that revenue will come from – like trading fees, equity in the coin or elsewhere – is unclear. As is Adams’ statement that he would run a nonprofit associated with the token. Adams said that he isn’t taking a salary “at this time,” but opened up the possibility of doing so “down the line.”
A website for the new token doesn’t shed much more light. Adams said that he and the couple other “creators” of NYC Token are listed on that website, though they were not listed as of Monday afternoon. (Asked directly if crypto investor and supporter Brock Pierce is involved, he said no.) Links to buy the token and to a whitepaper explaining it are non-functional, though there are instructions for how to buy and swap the common Ethereum token for the new NYC Token.
One thing that can be said of Adams: He’s committed to the Bitcoin bit. “Remember when I took my first three paychecks (in cryptocurrency), everybody said, ‘What the heck is he doing?’ They laughed at me, but I’m laughing now because it was a good, smart investment.”
