{"id":127724,"date":"2026-02-09T17:09:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T17:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/127724\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T17:09:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T17:09:38","slug":"former-nyc-mayor-adams-refuses-to-apologize-for-crypto-rug-pull","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/127724\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NYC Mayor Adams refuses to apologize for crypto rug pull"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced the launch of his new cryptocurrency<\/a>, NYC Token, on Jan 12. Within minutes, its market cap<\/a> reached $600 million, right before losing 75% of its value. An account linked to the coin\u2019s launch withdrew<\/a> around $2.5 million, and the token\u2019s crash followed suit.<\/p>\n

The token was intended to be Adams\u2019 first big initiative outside of City Hall. On X, he wrote<\/a> that the token was \u201cbuilt to fight the rapid spread of antisemitism and anti-Americanism across this country and now in New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, as the token quickly lost its value, some online<\/a> were quick to call it a rug pull: a scam where a coin is hyped to attract investments but its creators withdraw at its peak price, disappearing with all the money and leaving investors with losses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By the next day, around $1.5 million in funds were returned to investors, but $1 million was still unaccounted for. Adams denied the claims, with an account related to the token stating<\/a> that the funds were withdrawn simply to \u201crebalance the liquidity\u201d from its \u201coverwhelming demand.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whether Adams did or did not mean to rug pull investors, his actions surrounding NYC Token are reflective of his time as mayor: marked by scandal, devoid of transparency and self-interest presented as a commitment to public benefit.<\/p>\n

Scandal is not a foreign concept to Adams. He was indicted<\/a> in September 2024 on fraud and bribery charges, having allegedly taken illegal contributions<\/a> from Turkish officials, among others. He denied all the claims until his charges were dropped by the Department of Justice and later dismissed<\/a>. NYC Token is just another signal that he intends to continue his track record of misconduct.\u00a0<\/p>\n

NYC Token is also symbolic of his continued strategy of masking his self-preservation with a message of the public good. When Adams was under investigation for his corruption charges, his rhetoric shifted right, in which he started to defend<\/a> and praise some of the Trump administration\u2019s officials and actions. When asked why by PIX11, he replied<\/a>, \u201cNo matter what party I\u2019m on or vote on, I\u2019m going to push for the American values, and I think America has told us, stop the squabbling, leaders, and start leading us out of the crisis we\u2019re facing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conveniently for Adams, his cozying up to the Trump administration earned him its favor. In an event Adams attended in October 2025, Trump<\/a> said, \u201cI know what it\u2019s like to be persecuted by the DOJ, for speaking out against open borders. We were persecuted, Eric.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

This followed a memo written<\/a> by acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, which told prosecutors to dismiss charges, as the prosecution had \u201cunduly restricted Mayor Adams\u2019 ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adams\u2019 presentation of NYC Token as a coin to fight \u201canti-Americanism\u201d is peculiar at best and misdirection at worst \u2014 how the coin\u2019s profits are intended to be used is not clear, as the website hosts little information about it. The sentiment behind the coin echoes his \u201cAmerican values\u201d that led him to abruptly switch sides in self-preservation.<\/p>\n

With the failure of NYC Token as his first major action as a private citizen, the coin ultimately does not represent a new chapter for Adams.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead, it signals his continuation of the same behavior that defined his mayoralty, where everyone bears consequences except for Adams himself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced the launch of his new cryptocurrency, NYC Token, on Jan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-127724","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}