TL;DR Breakdown
- Mayor New York Adams says he’d receive three paychecks in Bitcoin.
- Adams plan to investigate why Bitcoin has not grown in the city.
New York City Mayor-Elect, Eric Adams has said he would take his first three paychecks in Bitcoin, following the footstep of Miami counterpart Francis Suárez.
He made the announcement shortly after the mayor delivered an electoral victory speech promising to make New York “a center for Bitcoin.”
“ We always go big, so I’m going to take my first THREE paychecks in Bitcoin when I become mayor,” Eric Adams tweeted. “NYC is going to be the center of the cryptocurrency industry and other fast-growing, innovative industries! Just wait!”
The New York Mayor’s tweet was a response to Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who committed on November 2 to take the entirety of his next paycheck in BTC, effectively becoming the first known U.S. politician to do so. Adams becomes the second.
New York mayor vows to make Bitcoin a phenom in America
New York was weighing legislation this year to ban bitcoin mining for three years so it could run an environmental assessment to gauge its greenhouse gas emissions. Lawmakers have since largely walked it back. Meanwhile, Miami has actively been trying to recruit bitcoin miners to South Florida to make use of the region’s nuclear power.
The new mayor, before the election, campaigned and made promises around Bitcoin. During a recent interview with Bloomberg, he vowed that he will “look at what’s preventing the growth of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in our city.”
Aside from his bullish stance on Bitcoin, he also said he would develop a “New York Coin,” similar to the one being implemented by Suarez in Miami. “We’re going to look in the direction to carry that out,” Adams said.
However, it remains unclear if Adams will directly be paid in bitcoin or if he intends to get paid in U.S. dollars that he will then convert to Bitcoin. Adams, a Democrat, was elected New York City’s 110th mayor by winning Tuesday night’s election in a landslide.
