New York City mayor makes surprising announcement

New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Monday reaffirmed his commitment to turning the city into the “crypto capital of the globe,” as he announced the upcoming New York City Crypto Summit, set to take place on May 20 at Gracie Mansion.Speaking alongside Chief Technology Officer Matt Fraser, the mayor said the summit will bring together crypto founders, regulators, and financial leaders to help shape the city's blockchain strategy.“My goal remains the same as it was on day one as mayor, making New York City the crypto capital of the globe. And as you remember, I supported crypto long before any of my mayoral peers. I was the first American mayor to have my initial three paychecks converted into crypto way back in 2022. Many people laughed at me, and all I can say is, who's laughing now?” Adams said.Fraser noted the potential beyond finance. “The opportunity to democratize access to vital records, things like birth and death records, to be able to access information at scale securely. Blockchain and crypto provides us a foundation where we can involve these things.”Joining the announcement were June Ou, co-founder of Figure, and Richie Hecker, CEO of Traction & Scale, both of whom are partnering with the city on the summit.“After building two multibillion-dollar companies in fintech and crypto, there is, without question, no competitor for New York City,” said Ou, noting Figure’s full-cycle blockchain solutions and expansion in New York.Hecker echoed the mayor’s vision. “People used to think Silicon Valley is the center of the tech universe... But New York City is the center of the actual universe,” he said. He also announced that Hyla, a $100M asset manager, is relocating to NYC.On state regulation, Adams stressed balance.“There’s a level of safety that comes with the right regulations, but over-regulations can hurt this industry and we don’t want that to happen. This is the Empire State. We should be looking forward to building empires, particularly in the crypto space. See you at the conference. Invest. Thank you.”New York City, Adams said, is open for crypto.Bitcoin is trading at $102,234, up 2.1% in the past 24 hours, with a market cap over $2 trillion, according to Kraken. XRP is up 6.3% to $2.52, now just behind USDT in market cap at $147.5 billion.