Former NYC Mayor Eric Adams accused of $2.5 million crypto ‘rug pull’ as his NYC Token crashes

Former NYC Mayor Eric Adams has come underneath hearth after his new cryptocurrency token crashed simply hours following its launch on Monday. As reported by CoinDesk, Adams’ “NYC Token” hit a $580 million market capitalization at its peak earlier than plummeting to round $130 million at the moment of writing.

Knowledge from the blockchain evaluation platform, Bubblemaps, flagged “suspicious” exercise surrounding the coin. A pockets linked to the NYC Token’s deployer withdrew round $2.5 million in liquidity when the token reached its peak. It later added round $1.5 million again after the coin dropped by 60 p.c, however, as famous by CoinDesk, round $900,000 wasn’t returned.

Customers throughout X accuse Adams of a crypto rug pull, a sort of rip-off that happens when somebody promotes a brand new crypto enterprise, however then all of a sudden shuts the venture down, whereas making off with the funds they’ve raised. The “Hawk Tuah Lady” Hailey Welch confronted related accusations after the worth of her newly-launched crypto token crashed after its launch in December 2024.

Adams, who has lengthy been a backer of crypto, claimed throughout an occasion on Monday that he would put a number of the NYC Token funds towards nonprofits centered on combating antisemitism, “anti-Americanism,” and to “train our youngsters learn how to embrace the blockchain expertise,” in line with The New York Instances

The NYC Token web site reveals that there are 1 billion tokens in circulation, and that the workforce behind the coin will take 10 p.c of income — although Adams didn’t reveal who precisely is on the workforce.