Many people have lost a lot of money in cryptocurrency, including New York Mayor Eric Adams. Last November, with bitcoin nearing a peak of $69,000 and just weeks before his inauguration, Adams announced his grand plan to make New York City a “cryptocurrency hub” in addition to receiving his top three salaries in cryptocurrency. For a mayor with few legislative priorities, that commitment was high on the short list.
On Jan. 21, according to a report in the Verge, Adams received the first of his two weeks’ paycheck — $5,900, according to the New York Post — and funneled that money into cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. Adams’ office confirmed that he had indeed converted three paychecks to cryptocurrency, splitting the money between Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Some back-of-the-envelope math gives a rough sense of how much money the hizzoner spent on that decision. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is at $16,811.40; Ethereum is $1229.74. Maybe they will go up from then; it’s possible they’ll still be down by the time you read this. That means Adams lost about 53 percent, 60 percent and 57 percent in his first three paychecks.
Check my work: I calculated these numbers based on the daily average of each currency on each of the three paydays. I assumed that the money was split equally between two separate coins. Cryptocurrencies can even fluctuate significantly in value on a minute-to-minute basis (which critics say is just one reason why they’re not particularly suitable as currencies), so Adams arbitrages his purchases so perfectly that he daily averages. Instead of Ethereum, which is down 66 percent, he may have only loaded Bitcoin, which is down 64 percent this year. Maybe he’s saved a few bucks here or there from the average day trader – he’s a self-proclaimed computer geek. But those last two numbers tell most of the story. All major cryptocurrencies that haven’t fallen to zero share the same ongoing downtrend.
Where does that leave us? In good old US dollars, that means Adams lost just over $10,000 on the stunt, which is not an insignificant amount of his salary. On Friday, he cashed out the 24thc mayor’s salary.
I say “likely” in part because City Hall won’t confirm whether or not Adams still holds all of the crypto. He also declined to comment on whether the mayor has concerns about the liquidity of the exchange, where he keeps his earnings, as cryptocurrency exchanges FTX, Celsius and BlockFi have folded in the past month. (So far, at least, Coinbase’s stock isn’t that hot, but the exchange has run away from cryptocurrency.)
Many people learned a hard lesson not to repeat themselves. Not Adams. His office also told me that his original promise to turn the city into a cryptocurrency hub remains unchanged and unfettered by the incredible display of corruption and misconduct that has become commonplace in the sector.
“Mayor Adams believes that cryptocurrency, blockchain, and other emerging technologies offer incredible opportunities for innovation and economic growth over the long term, and he wants to see that happen in New York as we continue to recover from COVID-19,” he said. . spokesman Jonah Allon. “As with all financial products, price volatility is an expected feature of the market, and it is short-sighted to believe that failures in the industry are an indication that it will not experience long-term growth.”
Meanwhile, Adams’ other November commitment, support for a New York-owned cryptocurrency, took a turn for the worse. NYCCoin has fallen almost 94 percent since its launch in February with the support of the mayor. MiamiCoin, which began trading in August 2021 and is being pushed by the city’s equally crypto-zealous mayor Francis Suarez, is trading at $0.000458, down 98 percent year-to-date.
Adams isn’t the only New York City politician caught up in the rapidly collapsing cryptocurrency ecosystem. Rep. Ritchie Torres, who represents the Bronx, has also made headlines recently is calling to the Office of Governmental Affairs to investigate why the Securities and Exchange Commission did not expose FTX before the collapse.
In March, Torres was one of eight members of Congress who sent a letter urging the SEC to drop its cryptocurrency investigation. A month later, members of the venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz hosted a cryptocurrency fundraiser on his behalf at Zero Bond, a private club in Manhattan, perhaps best known for being Adams’ favorite of the night. The event was called the Ritchie Torres Ethereum Fundraiser; an invitation encouraged guests to donate in crypto.
In June, Adams opposed a bill passed by the New York State Senate that would have placed a two-year moratorium on new evidence of crypto-mining operations due to their large carbon footprint. He urged Gov. Cathy Hochul to veto the bill.
Hochul did not. After it was signed into law in November, Adams softened his stance on the bill.
There have been many hackers who have unwittingly uploaded cryptocurrency to traces, getting rich in the process. Adams, to his credit, stepped in and had some real skin in the game. He, like many others, is poorer he