Mayor Adams is heading on a taxpayer-funded trip to Puerto Rico this week to attend a cryptocurrency conference.
Kayla Mamelak, Adams’ spokeswoman, told the Daily News that the city is paying the mayor’s airfare and lodging as he heads to San Juan on Tuesday for the “Puerto Rico Blockchain Week” confab.
Mamelak said Adams will deliver remarks at the event Tuesday afternoon alongside other cryptocurrency enthusiasts, including billionaire Brock Pierce and Perianne Boring, a businesswoman currently under consideration by President-elect Donald Trump to become his chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a federal entity that regulates the crypto industry.
Adams is then staying the night in San Juan, according to Mamelak, who said the city’s paying for the trip because the mayor’s going to learn “more about innovative ways to bring tech jobs to New York City.”
Mamelak said Adams is flying commercial to Puerto Rico and that city funds will be used to cover all “parts of the trip that have a city purpose.” She didn’t say how much the trip is expected to cost, which parts of it might not have a city purpose or if any staffers are joining Adams.
Adams’ crypto-focused trip, which was first reported by Politico, comes as Trump’s incoming administration has vowed to focus more federal resources on boosting cryptocurrencies amid concerns about fraud in the industry and its environmental impacts. In anticipation of Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, the value of cryptocurrencies have surged.
Adams has long himself been a major crypto proponent, converting his first three mayoral paychecks into Bitcoin. Last week, Adams boasted that the value of his crypto holdings have surged since Trump’s election.
“Remember y’all laughed at me when I first got my Bitcoin. Who’s laughing now? Go look at my Bitcoin now … Now you wish you would have done it,” he told reporters.
At the crypto conference, Adams is expected to rub shoulders with several Trump acolytes, including Pierce, a friend and donor to the mayor who’s also close with several Trump advisers, including Steve Bannon.
Originally Published:
