(Reuters) -New York Mayor-elect Eric Adams said on Thursday that he would take his first three paychecks in bitcoin and that the city would become the “center of the cryptocurrency industry.”
“In New York we always go big, so I’m going to take my first THREE paychecks in bitcoin when I become mayor,” Adams wrote in a Twitter post. “NYC is going to be the center of the cryptocurrency industry and other fast-growing, innovative industries! Just wait!”
Adams, a Democrat, will become the second Black mayor of the United States’ most populous city in January after easily defeating Republican Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels civilian safety patrol, in Tuesday’s election.
His tweet was a response to Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who wrote in a Twitter message of his own that he would take his paycheck in bitcoin. Suarez won re-election on Tuesday,
Adams told Bloomberg Radio on Wednesday that he wanted to create a New York City cryptocurrency and that he would look at any regulatory barriers to enticing crypto companies to invest in the city.
(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
