Transcript: Mayor Adams Participates in Live Interview on Coindesk

June 26, 2025

Jennifer Sanasie, Executive Editor, Coindesk: Welcome back to Coindesk Live, we are coming to you from New York City where Mayor Eric Adams recently unveiled plans for a Digital Asset Advisory Council to bring fintech jobs, investments and blockchain-driven public services to the Big Apple. The mayor joins us now. Welcome to the show.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. And fintech jobs, investment, and education. Because I want to build out a pipeline. Oftentimes, when we have these new forms of investments, we leave out many demographics and communities. And I want to incorporate this in my board of education. I want the children to know about this great technology for the future.

Sanasie: Tell me a little bit more about that. I mean, when you look at the City of New York, what demographics do you think could benefit the most from what we're talking about? Blockchain-enabled projects or crypto?

Mayor Adams: Well, the entire city on a whole. But particularly, when you look at, let's say, for example, my Caribbean diaspora. They send back large amounts of money back to their homes. And I was just in Puebla, Mexico, where they're sending money back. They're normally going through these money transfer services that they're paying a high fee. 

And so you have low-income New Yorkers that are taking a proportion of their dollars that are going to taxes. And now you're being taxed again just to get your money back home. And so by educating them to use Bitcoin and other sorts of cryptocurrency to transfer dollars, it is easy on them financially. 

And then when you go into paying for everything from summonses to your water bills, I believe we should be able to use one form of digital assets to do it.

Benjamin Schiller, Managing Editor, Coindesk: So, New York is the financial capital of the world, but it hasn't always been the crypto capital of the world. What are you doing to address that? How are we bringing companies back, crypto companies back to the city?

Mayor Adams: And I think it's a combination. It's a combination of being substantive and symbolic. The symbolism, I took my first three paychecks in Bitcoin. I knew how important for people to pause and say, “Wait a minute, I thought these Bitcoins were bad. But the mayor's taking his first few paychecks.” We're the financial capital, I wanted to lead from the front. 

But the substantive things that need to do, we gotta get rid of the Bitcoin license. That is really running businesses out of here. It was put in place under the previous governor. It was the wrong thing to do. And these great industries should not have to hide in secret to be able to do the evolution of paying for goods and services and transactions. 

And we want to use everything from BitBonds to other forms of paying for city services. I'm hoping one day you could get your, everyone could get their paycheck and Bitcoins as they desire without having to go through a middle process.

Sanasie: Ben and I were talking about the BitLicense earlier here at the desk. I know that that's something you've just said that you would like to get rid of. What's the process? What needs to happen for that to happen?

Mayor Adams: Great question. The license is controlled by the state. And what I believe, you have 50 million users of cryptocurrency, Bitcoins in our country. I think each one of the individuals need to get politically activated. 

Oftentimes people say, you know, “I'm just trying to run my business, Eric. I'm not trying to get all into politics.” If you don't get into politics, politics is going to get into you. And politics is going to do what we did 10 years ago by putting this BitLicense, this license in place. It's hurting the industry. 

So people need to know who their local electeds are. They need to go to Albany, lobby in Albany. They have a mayor and now president that is saying that, “Listen, we need to be open to cryptocurrency.” We need to now, locally, get the laws changed and put the pressure in Albany.

Schiller: So we're coming up to an election here in New York City for mayor. Do you think crypto will be on the ballot this year?

Mayor Adams: You got to put it on there, you know? And that's going back to what I was saying. We have a lot of people who are into cryptocurrency, blockchain. There's no reason we can't have our birth certificates, our death certificates, all of our records should be on blockchain. 

So during the season, during the debates, during the conversation, the people who want to push this agenda forward, they need to let all candidates know and ask the question, what do you stand on cryptocurrency? What are you going to do to make this a cryptocurrency-friendly city? And if they can't answer that question, this is an important issue, you need to let them know about it.

Schiller: So anyone who supports crypto should be supporting you rather than the alternatives?

Mayor Adams:  I’ll say that. Well, I think everybody should support me.

Sanasie: You know, you mentioned putting birth certificates, death certificates, public records on the blockchain. I know that in Buenos Aires, they've experimented with that. Are there any cities you're watching here in the US or outside of the US that you think are doing a good job and you'd like to replicate some of what they're doing here in New York?

Mayor Adams: El Salvador. I think El Salvador is leading the way. We have a long way to go in America. We made it hard. I am blown away how we took an entire industry and we basically demonized and criminalized it. We made it fearful. Everyone had to live in the shadows. 

And the evolution of currency has changed. I mean, we used to exchange things with seashells, for God's sake. You know, went to coins, went to paper dollars, went to credit cards. Now my son says, you know, “Dad, CashApp me.” What are you talking about? So the evolution is here. We need to embrace the evolution and not criminalize it and demonize it. 

So many people have lost so much for confiscation of their Bitcoins. We've treated this industry unfairly. And so it seemed like the federal government is now, in the first 120 days, I think they passed some like 60 pieces of legislation that's looking at this. Now you have local municipalities and mayors are saying, “Okay, let's embrace this.” 

And I started out in 2022 when I got elected. I'm not seeing a movement anywhere in the country. New York must lead the way. We're the financial capital of the country.

Sanasie: You know, Ben and I were talking earlier about New York once being, you know, the place where crypto companies wanted to be. Many of them left. Now we're seeing companies like Injective again, come back to the city. 

How do you plan to attract crypto companies back to New York City when there are hubs like Hong Kong, Dubai, Singapore, that are all vying for the same company? 

Schiller: Wyoming.

Mayor Adams: Right, right. I like to say that there's two types of Americans. Those who live in New York and those who wish they could. Everybody's coming back. All we have to do is be inviting, safe, a great place to educate your children. I mean, our social life and nightlife is the best. A lot of our younger grads are coming here, this is the first stop in the tech industry. If you want to meet your mate, you want to be in New York, you know? 

Schiller: Taxes are terrible here. 

Mayor Adams: No, they are. Los Angeles and New York, some of the highest taxes. And so there are those who are running for mayor that want to increase taxes on people. When I say, no, we need to do a better job with our money like family members are doing every day. Families have to balance their budget and make smart decisions. Government needs to do the same.

Schiller: So when you took your salary in Bitcoin, did you keep it in Bitcoin or did you convert it into dollars?

Sanasie: I was wondering that too. Thanks for asking that.

Mayor Adams: No, when I first took my three paychecks in Bitcoins, everybody laughed at me. Now, who's laughing? I am. It's still in Bitcoins. 

Schiller: So it's gone up a lot. 

Mayor Adams: Oh, what?

Sanasie: Since those first three paychecks, have you like, do you have a strategy? Are you dollar cost averaging? Are you putting some of your paycheck in Bitcoin still?

Mayor Adams: My financial advisor is handling that. I want to put more in Bitcoins. I think that this is the way of the future. And that's why it's important to take everyone with us. I don't want to leave those communities that, historically, been left behind with this technology. 

Everything from artificial intelligence, blockchain, Bitcoin, we need to embrace this holistic approach. And I just want my young scholars to be talking about this and be energized about this new concept. 

And they’re afraid now. People don't even want to engage in this because they feel like, I don't want to seem, no one wants to seem like they're dumb or something. But I think it's a way to make it user-friendly that our young people will embrace it more. 
Nothing would give me greater joy if you go into one of our inner cities, underserved community, and you can walk in the store and you can purchase something you want using Bitcoin. Then we've done our job.

Schiller: And it's a way of attracting people to the city as well.

Mayor Adams: Yes, yes, without a doubt.

Sanasie: You know, I said at the beginning of our interview, you have a Crypto Advisory Council that you're putting in place. When do you expect to have that council? And what kind of folks are you looking to put on that? Can you give us a few names?

Mayor Adams: Brock Pierce, I'm thinking about. I'm thinking about some of the leaders that have been here for a long time and we treated unfairly. We believe that many people came through the city and were real pioneers. We want to bring them back, but Brock has been a real advisor in this area. 

Schiller: He's one of the founders of Tether. 

Mayor Adams: Yes, yes. So our goal is to really bring back those giants and say that we need some of your vision and what do we do to expand and what do we need to attract companies here? 

So I don't want to reinvent the wheel. And there's a level of arrogance in government merely because you were elected, you believe you have the answers to everything. No, we have to find the answers from those who have gone this way already. And this is where we can make the inroads that are needed.

Sanasie: Mayor, thanks so much for joining our programming.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Good to be here.

###