{"id":99477,"date":"2026-01-14T00:27:48","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T00:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/99477\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T00:27:48","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T00:27:48","slug":"former-nyc-mayor-eric-adams-accused-of-2-5-million-crypto-rug-pull-as-his-nyc-token-crashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/99477\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NYC Mayor Eric Adams accused of $2.5 million crypto \u2018rug pull\u2019 as his NYC Token crashes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">Former NYC Mayor Eric Adams has come under fire after his new cryptocurrency token crashed just hours following its launch on Monday. As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/markets\/2026\/01\/13\/former-bitcoin-mayor-eric-adams-faces-usd3-million-rugpull-allegation-after-issuing-nyc-coin\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reported by CoinDesk<\/a>, Adams\u2019 \u201cNYC Token\u201d hit a $580 million market capitalization at its peak before plummeting to <a href=\"https:\/\/solscan.io\/token\/Ho5fkxk9uqUuVN5kt7TUFacduWCpKPAuYkM9HD3KAXA2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">around $130 million<\/a> at this time of writing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">Data from the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/bubblemaps\/status\/2010890109416292660?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">blockchain analysis platform, Bubblemaps<\/a>, flagged \u201csuspicious\u201d activity surrounding the coin. A wallet linked to the NYC Token\u2019s deployer withdrew around $2.5 million in liquidity when the token reached its peak. It later added around $1.5 million back after the coin dropped by 60 percent, but, as noted by CoinDesk, around $900,000 wasn\u2019t returned.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/DrEricDing\/status\/2011067087771324634?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">Users<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hackapreneur\/status\/2010944241556734179?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">across X<\/a> accuse Adams of <a href=\"https:\/\/go.skimresources.com\/?id=1025X1701640&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.coinbase.com%2Flearn%2Ftips-and-tutorials%2Fwhat-is-a-rug-pull-and-how-to-avoid-it\" rel=\"sponsored nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a crypto rug pull<\/a>, a type of scam that occurs when someone promotes a new crypto venture, but then suddenly shuts the project down, while making off with the funds they\u2019ve raised. The \u201cHawk Tuah Girl\u201d Hailey Welch <a href=\"https:\/\/futurism.com\/hawk-tuah-girl-knowledge-crypto\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">faced similar accusations<\/a> after the value of her newly launched crypto token crashed after its launch in December 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">\u201cAfter the launch of NYC Token, there was a lot of demand. Our market maker made adjustments in an attempt to keep trading running smoothly, and as part of this process, moved liquidity,\u201d Adams said in a statement to CoinDesk. \u201cThe team has not sold any tokens and are subject to lockups and transfer restrictions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">Adams, who has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2021\/11\/4\/22764104\/new-york-city-mayor-elect-eric-adams-announces-bitcoin-paycheck-miami\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">long been a backer of crypto<\/a>, claimed during an event on Monday that he would put some of the NYC Token funds toward nonprofits focused on combating antisemitism, \u201canti-Americanism,\u201d and to \u201cteach our children how to embrace the blockchain technology,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/01\/12\/nyregion\/adams-mamdani-crypto-congo.html?partner=slack&amp;smid=sl-share\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">according to The New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nyctoken.info\/#\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The NYC Token website<\/a> reveals that there are one billion tokens in circulation and that the team behind the coin will take 10 percent of profits \u2014 though Adams didn\u2019t reveal who exactly is on the team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">Update, January 13th: Added a statement from Adams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former NYC Mayor Eric Adams has come under fire after his new cryptocurrency token crashed just hours following&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6228,9,12,56,63,65,64,1413,87,1601],"class_list":["post-99477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-crypto","tag-new-york","tag-news","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-policy","tag-politics","tag-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99477","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=99477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}