Adams’ crypto paycheck le$$en
Maybe he should’ve stuck with cash.
Mayor Adams may have lost more than $1,000 of his first City Hall paycheck in four days after converting it into cryptocurrency during a market plunge, a Post analysis shows.
Adams, who earns $258,750 annually, said Friday he converted his first biweekly check — worth about $5,900 after average tax withholdings — into Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Between Friday and Monday mornings, Bitcoin’s price plunged by about 15.9%, while Ethereum fell 24.3%.
The mayor didn’t detail how he split his pay, but a $5,900 50/50 split between Bitcoin and Ethereum at midnight on Friday would have been worth just $4,714 on Monday morning — a loss of $1,186.
If the entire check was put into Bitcoin, he would have had about $4,961, and if put into Ethereum, he’d have had about $4,466.
Cryptocurrencies rallied later on Monday, but Bitcoin remained about 9.1% below Friday levels on Monday evening, while Ethereum was down 18.0%.
The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In November, Adams 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 industries.”
Since federal labor laws bar direct cryptocurrency payments to city employees, Adams converted his check using the crypto exchange Coinbase.
Adams made his initial crypto pledge when Bitcoin, now trading below $35,000, was above $60,000.
Asked about its plummet in early January, 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,” Adams told CNBC on Jan. 6.