In one of his first ventures since leaving office, former New York Mayor Eric Adams launched a cryptocurrency token whose value suddenly cratered early Tuesday morning, sparking accusations that it was a scam.
At a Times Square news conference Monday, Adams hawked the “NYC Token,” a meme coin that he claimed would be used to fight “anti-Americanism” and antisemitism, as well as “to teach our children how to embrace the blockchain technology.” The announcement was scarce on other details about the token, including who was backing it and how proceeds would be used to achieve the goals Adams stated.
Soon after its launch Monday night, the NYC Token skyrocketed to about a $580 million market capitalization. However, the blockchain analytics platform Bubblemaps subsequently flagged “suspicious liquidity movements,” noting that a digital wallet connected to the token had removed about $2.5 million at its peak value, then added back about $1.5 million after its value fell 60 percent.
Cryptocurrency watchers have since accused Adams and the unnamed backers of NYC Token of a so-called “rug pull” scam, in which the people behind a cryptocurrency launch suddenly sell off the investments, leaving the token with little to no value.
“This is such an obvious rug,” Nicolas Vaiman, the CEO of Bubblemaps, told Fortune on Tuesday.
A statement from an official X account for NYC Token said that its partners “had to rebalance the liquidity” given the “overwhelming support and demand for the token at launch.”
“We’re in it for the long haul!” the account stated.
Representatives for Adams did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
The former mayor claimed Monday he would not initially be making money from the NYC Token, though he did not rule out doing so in the future. At his news conference, Adams directed several other questions about the coin to its website, which claimed the NYC Token would be “the future of decentralized finance, powered by the city that never sleeps” — but was otherwise also short on specifics.
Ari Redbord, a vice president for the blockchain intelligence company TRM Labs, said he could not speak to Adams’s motivations or level of involvement in the token’s creation or trading.
“When people ask whether this ‘looks like a rug pull,’ they’re referring to whether the blockchain activity shows familiar memecoin risk patterns,” including concentrated ownership and rapid selling soon after the launch, Redbord told The Washington Post in an email.
Based on public activity, the token’s rapid price increase and subsequent steep collapse was “consistent” with such a dynamic, he said.
“That does not, by itself, establish intent or wrongdoing by any individual, but it illustrates how quickly value can evaporate in hype-driven token launches when liquidity and ownership are highly concentrated,” Redbord added.
In an interview Monday with Fox Business, Adams suggested to conservative host Maria Bartiromo that his crypto launch was part of his effort to “to do everything possible to fight like heck to make sure this city does not go backward,” alluding to the new administration of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has already undone some of Adams’s policies through executive orders.
“I still believe that this city is the financial capital of the globe, and we’re going to see how blockchain technology can actually improve government, not fight against government,” Adams said, offering few specifics of how private crypto would improve government.
Asked Monday if he would be buying one of Adams’s new crypto tokens, the recently sworn-in Mamdani said no.
Adams, who made a big deal of taking his first paycheck as mayor in bitcoin, is not the first political figure to launch his own meme coin or invest in the cryptocurrency industry, which is seen as risky and speculative. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump launched $TRUMP and $Melania coins last spring, and the president later invited top purchasers of his token to dine with him at a black-tie gala at one of his golf clubs, sparking backlash and concerns over ethics.
A Washington Post investigation last year found nearly 70 nominees and officials of the Trump administration held cryptocurrency or have invested in crypto or blockchain companies, with Trump reporting at least a $51 million personal stake in the cryptocurrency industry that he has championed since taking office again.
Adams was charged in 2024 with bribery, wire fraud and seeking illegal campaign donations. The charges were dismissed in April at the urging of the Justice Department in a decision that drew controversy. Adams, a Democrat running as an independent in last year’s mayor’s race, withdrew his candidacy in September after urging from Trump’s allies, who had hoped to consolidate support for former governor Andrew M. Cuomo.
Aside from his controversial crypto coin launch, Adams has been vague about his future ventures. He ended his term in office with a series of international trips, and told Fox News Business on Monday that he had recently returned from Dubai and the Democratic Republic of Congo to share how leaders could implement “some of the great things we’re doing here in this city.”
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