New York City’s newly elected mayor, Eric Adams, said in a tweet Thursday that he would receive his first three paychecks in Bitcoin.
The Democrat and Brooklyn borough president who beat Republican Curtis Sliwa on Tuesday tweeted the vow in reply to a tweet by Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who said he would arrange for his next paycheck to be paid in Bitcoin.
Adams replied to Suarez, raising the stakes with his own claim, “In New York we always go big, so I’m going to take my first THREE paychecks in Bitcoin when I become mayor,” Adams tweeted.
Among American politicians, Suarez has been one of the strongest advocates for cryptocurrency, particularly Bitcoin. The Miami mayor has encouraged crypto-related companies to relocate to the city and has pushed for government employees to be able to be paid in Bitcoin.
In his tweet, Adams promised New York City would surpass Miami as the driver of cryptocurrency innovation.
“NYC is going to be the center of the cryptocurrency industry and other fast-growing, innovative industries! Just wait,” he said in the Thursday tweet.
Adams said he hopes to help drive that change with new polices. The mayor-elect told Bloomberg Radio Wednesday that he hopes to create a citywide cryptocurrency. He praised Miami Mayor Suarez for his MiamiCoin, a digital currency that was released in August and had already earned the city of Miami about $7 million as of late September, according to the Washington Post.
Adams was widely perceived as a moderate and more pro-business candidate than his counterparts during the Democratic primary, which he won in June.
Adams has said he wants New York City to remove the barriers for crypto-related growth.
“We’re too bureaucratic, too expensive, and too difficult to do business,” Adams told Bloomberg. “Our agencies, they go into businesses and are looking for ways to penalize or fine them. We’re changing that atmosphere all together.”
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