Yesterday Eric Adams was elected as the new mayor of New York. During the campaign, Adams had explicitly stated that he was pro-Bitcoin.
In fact, he promised to make the city “the centre of Bitcoin” if he was elected.
Summary
Eric Adams, a landslide victory for the Pro-Bitcoin Mayor
Adams seemed to be the front-runner from the start, both because he was always ahead in the Democratic Party primaries and because he could count on broad support in the city’s most populous neighbourhoods.
Yesterday’s victory was overwhelming: 673,826 votes, equal to 67.2% of the voters, against only 282,655 votes for the Republican challenger Curtis Sliwa (28.2%).
Adams can therefore now count on broad public support, which could make it easier to achieve his goals.
The agenda for New York
However, he has to face a difficult situation, since the administration of his predecessor Bill De Blasio, also a Democrat, ended with many shadows, due to the negative effects of the pandemic, many job losses, skyrocketing house prices and rents, high-income inequality, and a poor transport system.
Adams has won broad support, especially among homeowning voters, and has focused his campaign on combating gun violence and improving safety, as he was formerly a captain in the local police. He plans spending cuts of $500 million a year.
In light of this, it is hard to imagine that the new mayor would put his crypto project for New York City on the map, but in truth, the famous local stock exchanges (NYSE and Nasdaq) probably only require a favourable environment to be able to fully engage in the crypto markets.
Adams would like to turn New York into a centre for life sciences, cybersecurity, self-driving cars and drones, and Bitcoin.
New York hub for Bitcoin
The US financial system, of which the city is already the undisputed centre, has been busy opening up and spreading to crypto markets for some time now, so it may not take much to turn it into the crypto-financial centre of the US, and perhaps the world.
The city already seems to have all the credentials to become one, and probably just needs a favourable environment and clear regulations. The US government itself seems to be trying to speed things up, so it may not be long before the regulatory framework makes it possible for financial institutions to operate in the crypto sector without problems. Most likely it will not be months, but years, and Adams now has four years to implement what he has promised.
