On some level, the new mayor is simply employing an age-old political strategy: making overtures to the business community. Fintech is a growing field in New York City, and blockchain-based companies represent a significant part of the sector.
The industry, in turn, has embraced Mr. Adams. In late September, Michael Novogratz, a major cryptocurrency investor, hosted a fund-raiser for him at Zero Bond, the members-only downtown nightclub where Mr. Adams has been known to fraternize late into the night.
In an interview, Mr. Novogratz described Mr. Adams’s announcement as a potent symbol.
“Listen, he is pro-business, he understands this is a growing industry, and it’s great P.R. for the city and him,” said Mr. Novogratz, the founder and chief executive of Galaxy Digital, a New York cryptocurrency investment firm that has in recent years grown from roughly 40 employees to more than 200. “It’s a booming industry and to symbolically say, ‘I care about and I want as a city to participate in it’ is really, really smart.”
Mr. Adams, shortly after his election, also flew to Puerto Rico on the private jet of Brock Pierce, a former child actor who is now a cryptocurrency investor. Mr. Adams said he paid his own way to Puerto Rico, but declined to produce receipts. Mr. Pierce, who attended the mayor’s election night victory party at Zero Bond and donated $100,000 to a political action committee that supported Mr. Adams’s mayoral bid, said he was “preoccupied” and would call back later when asked for comment on Thursday.
State Senator Diane J. Savino, who chairs the Senate Committee on Internet and Technology, said that while Mr. Adams’s announcement might seem like showmanship, his actions would make his constituents more comfortable with cryptocurrency.
