The new office is planned to position New York City as a global hub for digital assets.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has issued Executive Order 57, formally creating the Office of Digital Assets and Blockchain Technology within the Mayor’s Office. The new division, led by an executive director reporting directly to the city’s chief technology officer, aims to coordinate blockchain and digital asset initiatives across municipal agencies and foster collaboration with private-sector innovators.
According to the order, the office will focus on four key areas: developing strategies to strengthen New York’s role as a hub for digital assets; attracting investment in blockchain innovation; advising on policy and legislative opportunities; and promoting public education on the responsible use of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.
The office will work closely with the New York City Economic Development Corporation and the Office of Technology and Innovation to ensure citywide alignment. The mayor’s directive emphasizes New York’s historic role as a financial capital and its commitment to remaining at the forefront of fintech evolution.
The order, which takes effect immediately, underscores the city’s intent to “serve as a bridge between government and the digital asset industry” — an approach that mirrors growing national trends in public-private coordination on blockchain policy.
Eric Adams reinforces support for digital assets
The move reinforces Eric Adams’ long-standing belief in blockchain and Bitcoin (BTC). In earlier interviews, Adams argued that decentralized technology could restore transparency, fairness and trust to financial systems, positioning New York as a testing ground for the next wave of economic infrastructure.
“This new mayoral office is going to help us stay ahead of the curve, grow our economy, AND attract world-class talent,” Adams wrote on X on Oct. 14.
The voices for and against digital assets
The national conversations around crypto regulation is reaching a critical turning point. Lawmakers, industry leaders and labor unions sharply divided over the future of digital assets in the United States.
Pro-Bitcoin voices in Washington, including Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), are doubling down on their support for BTC as a tool for financial resilience and fiscal accountability.
On Oct. 14, Lummis echoed Elon Musk’s recent praise of Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation and government overspending, calling for the creation of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
According to Lummis, such a reserve could “shore up USD” by securing U.S. debt with a verifiable hard asset. The senator added that Bitcoin’s finite supply could allow the U.S. to “retire a meaningful percentage of its debt” within the next two decades.
However, this optimism contrasts sharply with warnings from the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the largest labor federation in the U.S. The group cautioned that the Responsible Financial Innovation Act (RFIA) — a draft Senate bill aimed at regulating crypto markets — could expose workers, banks and the broader financial system to greater risk.
In a letter to the Senate Banking Committee, AFL-CIO Director of Government Affairs Jody Calemine said the 182-page proposal provides only “the façade of regulation,” enabling the crypto industry to expand “without sufficient safeguards.” The federation specifically criticized provisions that would allow FDIC-insured banks to directly hold and trade crypto, arguing that such a move could introduce systemic instability into the traditional financial system.
