NYC Mayor Adams deems bitcoin not a security in disclosure mishap

Mayor Eric Adams said he did not hold any crypto over $1,000 after saying he had converted his first three paychecks into the crypto

article-image

New York City Mayor Eric Adams | Ron Adar/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who converted paychecks to crypto and angled the city as an industry hotspot, erred on a disclosure because he thought bitcoin wasn’t a security, his team said.  

Adams made an error on a mandatory report filed with the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board, his team said Thursday. 

In his 2022 financial disclosure report, Adams answered “no” when asked if he held “any security (such as stocks, bonds, ETFs, mutual funds or cryptocurrencies) with a market value of $1,000 or more” at the end of 2022. Asked about the lack of disclosure around his bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) holdings, Adams’ team said he would be amending the disclosure. 

Adams’ press secretary Fabien Levy told The New York Daily News Thursday Adams failed to report his crypto holdings because he thought only securities were included in the question, not currencies. SEC Chair Gary Gensler has said bitcoin is not a security. 

Read more: The SEC says these crypto assets are securities, but their reasoning is wrong

Adams took office in 2022 and said he would “take” his first three paychecks in bitcoin. In reality, the mayor converted his post-tax pay into crypto on Coinbase, he said. The move was part of the mayor’s broader plan to establish the city as a crypto hub. 

“NYC is going to be the center of the cryptocurrency industry and other fast-growing, innovative industries! Just wait!,” Adams said on Twitter after winning the election. 

Presidential candidate Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, also known as a crypto proponent, indicated in his year-end 2022 financial disclosures that his crypto holdings were worth around $70,000. Suarez has said that he converts his $130,000 annual salary into crypto via Stripe. 

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he would be accepting campaign donations in bitcoin. Financial disclosures from Kennedy reveal the candidate held between $100,001 and $250,000 of bitcoin through the second quarter.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Featured.png

Research

Helium stands at a pivotal moment in its evolution as a decentralized wireless network, balancing rapid growth, economic restructuring, and global expansion. With accelerated growth in domestic DAUs and Hotspots supporting its network, Helium is leveraging strategic partnerships and innovative proposals to scale internationally. The recent implementation of HIP 138, “Return to HNT,” has unified its token economy under HNT, simplifying participation and strengthening liquidity, while HIP 139’s phase-out of CBRS refocuses efforts on scalable Wi-Fi offload. Meanwhile, governance shifts under HIP 141 raise questions about centralization as Nova Labs consolidates control over the roadmap.

article-image

In 2011, WikiLeaks faced a financial blockade imposed by the US government. It was Bitcoin’s first major test.

article-image

Kado’s founder Emery Andrew spoke to Blockworks about the acquisition and what’s next for the team

article-image

LayerZero’s Bryan Pellegrino chatted with Blockworks about the firm’s next steps and its 10-year runway

article-image

Colosseum co-founder Matty Taylor is seeing “high-performance [Solana] founders showing a lot of interest in private trading technology”

article-image

Executives weigh the growth potential they see in the public stock and private credit/equities arenas

article-image

Players can stake ME, trade tokens and link wallets to climb the leaderboard