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Former New York Mayor Eric Adams on Monday sounded a familiar note, launching a new digital currency that he said will make his city the “crypto capital of the world.”
In a television interview with Fox Business on Monday, Adams said his new venture, called NYC Token, will provide funding for three initiatives: awareness and education programs for antisemitism and anti-Americanism, education on crypto and blockchain technologies for the city’s youth and scholarships for students from underserved New York communities.
“There’s a wave of anti-Americanism that’s sweeping not only our Ivy League college campuses, but in our inner cities,” Adams told Fox’s Maria Bartiromo. “And so the goal is how do we use a block change technology, with this token is one way, and a substantial amount of that’s raised from this token is going to fight those three initiatives that you just pointed out.”
According to its website, the new digital token was “inspired by New York’s resilience, diversity and ambition to become the crypto capitol of the world, something that was originally the vision of the former mayor, Eric Adams.” And during his Fox appearance Monday, Adams said blockchain “can actually improve government, not fight against government.”
Adams has long been a booster of cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies, including buying bitcoin with his first paycheck as mayor. He signed an executive order establishing an Office of Digital Assets and Blockchain Technology and developed an extensive blockchain plan for the city, which would have launched a pilot project led by the city’s Department of Environmental Protection using the technology to verify asbestos certification. None of these projects are expected to proceed since Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed an order immediately after taking office that negated all Adams orders dating back to the former mayor’s corruption charges.
Buying NYC tokens is easy, according to the website. Users need simply to download a cryptocurrency wallet such as MetaMask and create an account. Then they must purchase Ethereum, a different cryptocurrency, before logging onto the crypto exchange Uniswap and connecting their wallet, itself a five-step process. Then the user must enter an NYC contract address to begin trading their Ethereum for NYC tokens. A graphic shows that 1 billion tokens, with a market cap of $2.5 million, are available for purchase.
According to its website, NYC Token is “lightning fast,” “ultra secure” with “military-grade encryption and decentralized architecture,” and “community driven” — “Governed by the community, for the community. Your voice matters,” the site proclaims. Actual information on how the token works or how it will fund education initiatives is not available. As of Monday, many of the buttons on the website are broken.
When asked by Bartiromo about the coin’s use case, Adams mentioned Walmart, which uses IBM’s blockchain technology for procurement and supply chain management. Adams also mentioned that he spent time last week in the city of Dubai and Congo, places that he said could benefit from “things from New York.”
