Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Monday evening, a few hours later announcing his “NYC Token” during a press conference in Times Square, former New York Mayor Eric Adams launched his cryptocurrency. The token’s purpose was unclear — beyond a vague promise from Adams that it would combat anti-Semitism — but investors bought it anyway, briefly boosting its market capitalization to $600 million. Then it crashed.
It didn’t take long for crypto observers to declare that NYC Token had all the hallmarks of a dreaded rugpull – a common scam in which someone launches a cryptocurrency and then quickly extracts the value, leaving retail investors with worthless tokens. According to Nicolas Vaiman, founder of cryptocurrency analysis company Bubblemaps, as well as blockchain transactions examined by Fortunethe developer probably made around $1 million after taking his profits off the market.
Although it is unclear whether Adams received any of the profits, the incident brought to mind similar debacles during celebrity memecoin launches, including that of Argentine President Javier Milei. Libra Scandal early 2025 and Haliey ‘Hawk Tuah girl’ Welch’s launch failure late 2024. “It’s such an obvious rug,” Vaiman said.
A representative for Adams did not respond to a request for comment.
$NYC token
When Adams revealed his “NYC Token” project to a group of reporters in Times Square on Monday morning, he was short on details. The former mayor declined to specify who else was involved in cryptocurrency and instead pointed to a website with no working buttons. He added that the project would teach children in New York the virtues of blockchain technology and fund initiatives to combat anti-Semitism.
Adams has long been a crypto booster. He began his term as mayor by declaring that he would receive his first three paychecks in Bitcoin and stroll with Brock Pierce, the former Mighty Ducks star who made his fortune on blockchain projects including the stablecoin Tether.
Eddie Cullen, former New York City mayoral candidate and founder of crypto company Crescite, says he began sharing ideas with Adams’ inner circle for a New York token around June 2025. press release of his political action committee Innovate NY describes its intention to support a filed initiative called NYC Token that would “harness blockchain technology to generate new revenue in the city,” and Cullen shared a presentation with Fortune detailing the project that he says he also shared with Adams’ team.
Cullen said he had no warning about Monday’s announcement and is considering sending Adams a cease-fire. “I’m going to hold him accountable,” he said Fortune. “I’m even more shocked that he would go out and do that.”
It is unclear who other than Adams was involved in the launch of the token, with a new website listing C18 Digital as an associated entity. Delaware corporate records indicate that a limited liability company called C18 Digital was incorporated on December 30, 2025.
The confusing history of the token’s creation is just the tip of the iceberg. When a cryptocurrency is launched, the developers behind the project typically fund the new market with other assets such as USDC, a stablecoin backed by the US dollar, or the popular cryptocurrency Solana in a so-called “liquidity pool” so that users can both buy and sell the new token.
But the New York token did not follow this approach, but instead created a one-sided liquidity pool that included only the token itself. When users started buying it, injecting the liquidity pool with USDC, a wallet associated with the developer withdrew $2.5 million from those USDC. According to Vaiman, this type of sale is more subtle because it does not appear that the wallets are selling the token itself. Hayden Davis, the infamous figure behind Argentina’s Libra scandal, which saw investors lose $250 million in a memecoin associated with the country’s president, used a similar approach.
After reports of a rugpull went viral X On Monday evening, a new account associated with the token announced that it had added new funds to the liquidity pool. Still, according to Vaiman, the developers were probably able to make a net profit of around $1 million.
“I really have no explanation for why they did that,” Vaiman said. “Is it as simple as an outright scam? Maybe I’m too optimistic and I don’t want to believe it is, but maybe it is.”
