Eric Adams crypto summit features all-day open bar and BitLicense criticism

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Eric Adams is pulling a Donald Trump. Or he’s trying to, at least. That was my takeaway from the inaugural NYC Crypto Summit at Gracie Mansion last week.

Adams — New York’s controversial, no-longer-federally-indicted mayor — hasn’t talked about crypto much since taking office in 2022.

Adams promised on the campaign trail to take his first three paychecks in bitcoin. When the city’s Treasury department couldn’t make this happen, he opted to buy BTC and ETH himself on payday.

For the last several years, the War on Rats has been the Adams administration’s main focus. But last month, city officials announced the Crypto Summit — a press conference followed by private roundtable discussions with industry executives and city officials.

The purpose, Adams said, was to come up with new ways the city can leverage crypto and blockchain technology to create jobs, improve operations and expand access to financial services. The event was complete with speeches from Tether co-founder Brock Pierce and Bitcoin Center creator Nick Spanos. There was also an open bar starting at 2 pm.

Spanos (and most of the people at the roundtable, I’m told) is primarily interested in abolishing the BitLicense, the Department of Financial Services-issued business license digital asset companies need to operate in the state. The fact that the mayor of New York City does not have the authority to nix the BitLicense was not mentioned.

After a couple hours of roundtable discussion, the party moved outside. Hundreds of guests donning attire falling somewhere between “boardroom and ballroom,” per an attendee I spoke with, gathered under a tent in Gracie Mansion’s backyard for a post-summit reception. Several other attendees told me they only came to get a look inside the famous house.

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