Eric Adams may have lost more than $1,000 converting his first paycheck to crypto
Maybe he should’ve stuck with cash.
Mayor Eric Adams may have lost more than $1,000 of his first City Hall paycheck in just four days after co𓂃nverting it into cryptocurrency during a plunge in the market, a Post analysis shows.
Adams, who pulls an annual salary of $258,750, said Friday he converted his first biweekly paycheck — worth about $5,900 after average tax withholdings — into the cryptocurrencies bitcoin and eth✅ereum.
From the beginning of the day on Friday until Monday morning, bitcoin’s price plunge𒁃d by about 15.9%, while ethereum fell 24.3%.
The mayor didn’t detail exactly how he divided his paycheck between the two cryptocurrencies, but a $5,900 investment split 50/50 between bitcoin and et♏hereum at midnight on Friday would have been worth just $4,714 on Monday morning — a loss of $1,186.
If Adams had put his entire paycheck into bitcoin, he have had about $4,961 Monday morning, while the same ꦡamount of money invested in ethereum would have been worth $4,466.
Cryptocurrencies rallied later on Monday, but bitcoin remained about 9.1% below Frid༒ay levels on Monday evening, while ethereum was down 18.0%.
The mayor’s office did notඣ immediately respond to a request for comment.
In November, Adams first pledged to take his first three paychecks ꧟in cryptocurrency as part of a plan to make New York City into the “center of the cryptocurrency industry and other fast-growing, innovative indu🌜stries.”
But federal Department of Labor regulations ban city governments from paying workers directly in cryptocurrencies, so the mಌayor’s office said his paycheck would immediately be co💝nverted into cryptocurrency using the crypto exchange Coinbase.
Adams made his ꦚinitial crypto pledge when bitcoin was trading north of $60,000. It has since fallen below $35,000.
Asked about bitcoin’s plummeting price in early Ja🍌nuary, Adams struck an optimistic tone.
“Sometimes the best time to buy is when things go down, so when they go back up, you made a good profit,” &nb🌜sp;💖on Jan. 6.
In November, Adams caught flak for quietly flying to the SOMOS conference in Puerto Rico on a private Gulfstream jet owned byꦍ the bitcoin billionaire Brock Pierce, who also donated to his campaign. A spokesᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚman said Adams paid for the flight through a travel agent.
