New York City's next mayor says crypto should be taught in schools

New York Mayor-elect Eric Adams said schools should teach about cryptocurrency and its technology, as he vows to build a crypto-friendly city when he takes office in January.

“When I talked about blockchain and Bitcoins, young people on street stopped and asked me, ‘What is that?’” Adams said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. Asked if he could explain Bitcoin, he laughed, saying that’s a challenge even for experts.

Bitcoin means a “new way of paying for goods and services throughout the entire globe,” he said. “And that’s what we must do — open our schools to teach the technology and teach this new way of thinking.”

Asked if he would encourage New York City businesses to accept Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency, the 61-year-old Democrat said, “We are going to look at it, and we are going to tread carefully. We are going to get it right.”

The mayor-elect said this week that he’ll take his first three paychecks in Bitcoin and that the city must build a pipeline of talent for crypto-related jobs. To wager a “friendly competition” with Miami, which has become one of the U.S. hubs for crypto jobs, Adams said in a Wednesday interview on Bloomberg Radio that he would also explore setting up a NYC crypto coin similar to “MiamiCoin.”