Transcript: Mayor Adams Makes Digital Assets and Economic Development-Related Announcement With CTO Matt Fraser

May 12, 2025

Watch video here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgBFpNUgRy0

Matthew Fraser, Chief Technology Officer, New York City Office of Technology and Innovation: Good morning everyone. My name is Matt Fraser, I'm the chief technology officer for New York City. Welcome to Gracie Mansion. Today we're here to talk about something that's very important, and something that's going to change the landscape of the modern technology era. 

If you look throughout modern history, New York City has long been home for the fintech capital, financial related technologies, for the longest time. And over the past decade, we've seen a lot of innovations across the space. One of the most notable has become in the digital assets space, including crypto and blockchain. 

And today we're here to talk about an event that's coming, that we'll be using to coordinate that conversation between industry, and not only just industry, but across government and many other spectrums to make sure that New York City is prepared for what's coming in the future. But there's no one better to talk about that than the Honorable Mayor Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thanks so much, Matt. I'm really, really excited about this important moment, not only in technology, but how we go about changing the way we exchange goods and services. Technology in New York City is one of New York City's fastest growing industries. And we're in the midst of nothing short of a technological revolution, the age of tokenization, which includes crypto, blockchain, and other fintech innovations. 

It's not the future, it is here, and it's here now. And when it comes to immense opportunities to grow our economy, it's New York– Boy, this is pollen season, you know? We're going to attract world-class talent, provide opportunities for underbanked communities, and make the government more user-friendly. And I really want to emphasize on underbanked communities, because this new form of financing and finance is something that can impact those communities that have historically found themselves lacking in access to banks and access to ways to save their resources and dollars. 

My goal remains the same as it was on day one as mayor, making New York City the crypto capital of the globe. And as you remember, I supported crypto long before any of my mayoral peers. I was the first American mayor to have my initial three paychecks converted into crypto way back in 2022. Many people laughed at me, and all I can say is, who's laughing now? 

We're seeing how this industry is growing. Since then, the number of crypto and blockchain startups that have made New York City home has skyrocketed. Today, we outrank Silicon Valley, and the exciting things that we're doing, they have just gotten started, and we're looking forward to continuing the partnership. And I'm excited to be joined by June Ou, who is the co-founder of Figure Firm, and Richie Hecker, the CEO of Traction and Scale, both notable and respected individuals in this space. They're joining our world-class roster of crypto talent and resources in New York City. 

We're going to work with our tech companies, from startups to global giants, to create a friendly environment that helps them succeed here in the City of New York. And our first ever New York City Crypto Summit on May 20th at Gracie Mansion here, it will demonstrate our strong commitment to leadership, and most importantly, partnership. The summit will bring together crypto innovators and influencers to share insights and experiences that they will use to chart our path forward. 

Bringing together all of these great minds and coordinations, hearing from our keynote speakers, and just really a cross-pollination of ideas and methods that we will use to move this industry in the right direction, both in terms of economic development and opportunities to serve the public using digital assets. 

We are focused on the long-term values of these technologies for our city and its people, not chasing memes or trends, which is why we are bringing together leaders from across the industry to help advise us on our next steps and how we move in the right direction. 

More on that to come following the summit, but for now I want to reiterate, if you're into crypto, blockchain, Web3, or the fintech space, New York City is open for business. Join us. There's no place like New York, and we're going to show that in this amazing summit that is going to take place on May 20th. 

Fraser: Thank you, sir. As the mayor mentioned, the opportunity and the benefits of leveraging these types of technologies go far beyond just the financial space. The opportunity to democratize access to vital records, things like birth and death records, to be able to access information at scale securely. Blockchain and crypto provides us a foundation where we can involve these things. 

But the summit that we're going to have is focused not just on the current use cases, but the future of what it could look like. But nowhere is better to get started than the foundation of where this all started around crypto. So it's my pleasure to introduce June Ou.

June Ou, Co-Founder, Figure: Hi, my name is June Ou. I'm co-founder of a couple of companies. After building two multibillion-dollar companies in fintech and crypto, there is, without question, no competitor for New York City. Figure, my newest company, chose to build New York City. Our C-suite is in the New York City office, and we are now expanding our footprint. 

Figure brings the entire business full cycle to blockchain, which includes origination, sale, warehousing, securitization, and trading. All true assets with value on blockchain and continually innovates, including creating a TBA marketplace that's a perfect platform for New York institutions. 

In just a few months, we've originated 10 million in New York State with growing volume. New York City is undoubtedly the right place for blockchain and fintech companies looking to make a significant impact on the blockchain and crypto industry. We look forward to driving the future of capital markets on blockchain while based in New York City. Thank you.

Fraser: Thank you, June. I'd like to also introduce Richie Hecker, the CEO of Traction & Scale.

Richie Hecker, CEO, Traction & Scale: Thank you, Matt. My name is Richie Hecker, the CEO of Traction & Scale, and a partner of the upcoming crypto summit here in New York City. People used to think Silicon Valley is the center of the tech universe. Well, maybe they were right. But New York City is the center of the actual universe. 

Under the mayor's bold leadership, we are focused on building New York City to become the center for financial innovation. We have already spoken to many companies who are moving their headquarters and expanding their footprint in New York City. It takes strong leadership to inspire startups to choose a city to become home. And under Mayor Adams' strong leadership, the world is now jumping back to New York. 

For example, Hyla, an asset manager with over $100 million under management, has agreed to open its new offices in New York City. Hyla aims to deploy as much of its funds as possible in New York City fund managers. Specifically to New York, Hyla is led by the former CIO of the New York State Senate who left the city and asked me to share that he is relieved and excited that the city is now supporting fintech and is thrilled to come back home. He even noted that no other city is worth considering now that New York is back in the game.

This is all thanks to the mayor's bold actions. He is bringing the momentum that is paving the way for Traction & Scale to partner with the government and develop public-private partnerships. This month's summit will focus on policy, bringing together the leading experts in crypto, fintech, and financial markets. We look forward to working together to develop brilliant ideas that will solidify New York City as the crypto capital of the world. It already is the financial capital of the world. 

We chose New York City because of Mayor Eric Adams' firm commitment to leading the world in financial innovation. And we are excited to lend our deep engineering talent to the cause. Thank you very much and I'll see you at the summit.

Question: How do you feel about New York DFS's regulation of the crypto industry here and do you think that their reputation as a tough crypto regulator is helping or hurting your goal to make New York a crypto country?

Mayor Adams: And that's a great question because it's almost a– when I'm hearing from the industry, one, it is good to know that the city is going to have safe regulations in place for those who are investing and there's not going to be any abuses. But at the same time, we can't over-regulate, that will prevent growth. 

And I think that our state must embrace the crypto-friendly, blockchain-friendly environment that we have here in New York City. And there are a few state lawmakers like the Assemblyman Vanel, Clyde Vanel, who very much has embraced this technology. 

So there's a level of safety that comes with the right regulations, but over-regulations can hurt this industry and we don't want that to happen. This is the Empire State. We should be looking forward to building empires, particularly in the crypto space. See you at the conference. Invest. Thank you.

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