![]() Ed specialized in strategic advisory for crypto related businesses, to include mergers and acquisitions, as well as capital raising activity. It’s all very bizarre, but the possibility of fresh money-even digital funny money-may be intoxicating for an eccentric, eager-to-please mayor-in-waiting.Ed Han most recently was a managing director and Head of Crypto and Digital Asset Investment Banking at Bank of America where he joined in 2013. It may all seem a bit ridiculous (and grifty), but to keep things in perspective, one of the biggest industry stories this week was about a man who lost a million dollars of “Bored Ape” NFTs. This week, almost three years to the day after he was fined hundreds of thousands of dollars by the Securities and Exchange Commission for his role in promoting a cryptocurrency scam, boxer Floyd Mayweather unveiled a purchasable token based on his name. That Matt Damon ad is part of a $100 million campaign by that will feature other celebrities and pro athletes. There’s plenty of other money, and influence, splashing around. Last week, the New York Times published a piece about Andreessen Horowitz-a leading venture capital firm sinking billions of dollars into crypto startups-blitzing Capitol Hill with prewritten, industry-friendly bills presented by slick-talking company officials (some of whom were only recently hired from government regulatory positions). It’s Happening at Home.ĭespite its frequently populist messaging, crypto has big money behind it. It Was Mortifying-but I Learned Something Important.Īmerica Is in the Middle of an Energy Crisis. I Confronted Someone Who Removed Me From Find My Friends. And just like the lottery, statistically speaking, it’s a loser’s game. The least we can ask of the leader of our city is not to encourage such irresponsible behavior, especially since, for people on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder, playing the crypto lottery is tempting enough already. Whenever the crypto bubble pops-the recent stablecoin report issued by the Biden administration may have signaled “last call” to those paying attention-regular people who invested/gambled on crypto are most likely going to be the ones left holding the bag. Like many barely considered crypto ventures, Adams’ burgeoning Bitcoin boosterism is dumb and it will end badly. That still doesn’t make it a good idea for a public servant to promote gambling with one’s entire paycheck in what is essentially an unlicensed, unregulated casino. Pledging fealty to the Bitcoin cult, promising to become a low-tax crypto playground, laying out the red carpet for the venture capitalists investing in the industry-these are rapidly becoming table stakes for tech-forward mayors.Īdams’ motivations are unclear, but it doesn’t take a genius to understand that Wall Street loves a good party (volatility is king and crypto has plenty of it) and that Adams wants to keep those with deep pockets happy. ![]() The message boils down to this: I’m going to take my public salary and gamble it on a speculative store of value, and you should, too! And to further grease the journey into crypto-gambling dystopia, Adams even wants New York to establish its own cryptocurrency, as Miami recently did with MiamiCoin. Besides showing a general obsequiousness to the tech industry and an ignorance of people’s real financial problems, it’s worth thinking about the examples being set by Adams, Suarez, and their peers. Pledging fealty to the Bitcoin cult, promising to become a low-tax crypto playground, laying out the red carpet for the venture capitalists investing in this industry-these are rapidly becoming table stakes for tech-forward mayors. But the crypto gloss being overlaid on municipal politics is something relatively novel and more than a bit troubling. The grasping for publicity by any means is to be expected-his message was likely appreciated by visitors in town this week for an NFT conference-and the braggadocio is par for the course. Leaving aside the fact that, no, you cannot actually dictate to your employer the currency in which you get paid (“I’d like my fee for this article in gold doubloons if you please, Slate”), this was still an embarrassingly stupid move on the incoming mayor’s part.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |