NYC Comptroller knocks back Mayor Adams’ ‘dubious’ and ‘irresponsible’ Bitbond plan

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander rejected Mayor Eric Adams’s proposal to issue municipal bonds backed by Bitcoin, even going as far as tagging it “irresponsible.”

Lander has been adamant that New York City will not issue Bitcoin-backed bonds on his watch. His stance directly opposes Mayor Adams, who is famous for his love of crypto.

The division on the topic could be settled when the city heads to the polls, as both men are candidates for November’s mayoral election. Mayor Adams is running as an independent, and Lander is the Democratic candidate.

Mayor Adams’ crypto plans may stall if he does not return to office

Mayor Adams has been campaigning to make New York City a hub for crypto in the near future and has even set up an advisory council to that end.

However, if he is unable to keep his seat as mayor, and a man who believes “Cryptocurrencies are not sufficiently stable to finance our city’s infrastructure, affordable housing, or schools,” takes over, there’s no telling what will happen to the things Mayor Adams sets in motion.

Lander also believes that “Proposing that New York City should open its capital planning to crypto could expose our city to new risks and erode bond buyers’ trust in our city.”

Mayor Adams talked about his Bitbond proposal on Wednesday at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, a speech that came a week after he hosted New York City’s inaugural crypto and digital assets summit at Gracie Mansion.

At the event, he reiterated his pledge to make New York City the “crypto capital of the globe” and announced the creation of a digital assets advisory council to “bring fintech jobs and investment right here to the Big Apple.”

Lander called Mayor Adams’s proposal “legally dubious and fiscally irresponsible,” adding that “the current Federal Tax Law regime would most likely neither permit tax-exempt financing for acquiring cryptocurrency nor permit investment gains in excess of the federally subsidized financing costs.”

Lander does not buy the crypto hype

While politicians like Adams, Francis Suarez, Cynthia Lummis, Andrew Yang, Tom Emmer, Pat Toomey, Ron DeSantis, and Kirsten Gillibrand have all taken a pro-crypto stance, others are either indecisive or suspicious of crypto.

Aside from Lander, another famous critic of crypto is Elizabeth Warren . She is outspoken as a crypto critic and is famous for introducing the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2023, which aimed to impose strict regulations on crypto transactions to curb illicit activities.

She believes crypto is a “preferred tool” for terrorists, drug traffickers, and money launderers, and has made many other interesting claims.

Warren’s stance on crypto is shared by Bernie Sanders and both of them have also worked together on regulations to restrict banks’ engagement with crypto, arguing it lacks “real public purpose” and primarily benefits speculators while causing financial losses for others. Sanders also supports measures to limit crypto’s environmental and economic impacts.

These politicians who seem to be anti-crypto all share concerns about the industry’s volatility, potential for criminal use, environmental impact, and lack of consumer protections.

Lander’s unenthusiastic response to Bitbonds reflects a cautious stance that aligns with broader Democratic skepticism about crypto’s stability and public utility.

Landers and the other anti-crypto politicians have been pushing for stricter regulations in hopes that it will address perceived gaps in oversight, a concern Lander echoed in his critique of Bitbonds’ legal viability.

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