Inside the botched launch of ex-NYC Mayor Eric Adams' new crypto token

Key Highlights

• To some cryptocurrency experts, the rollout had all the hallmarks of a “rug pull.” The scheme — prevalent among celebrity-linked meme coins — involves insiders hyping an asset then quickly dumping their stakes, saddling amateur investors with deep losses. Others have suggested that Adams and his inexperienced team were themselves duped by savvier investors, who took advantage of a sloppy launch. The debate has found Adams back in a mode of damage control that defined so much of his one-term mayoralty: denying misconduct, attacking the press and facing scrutiny about the competence of his inner circle of loyalists. Through a former campaign spokesperson, Adams has released multiple statements in recent days clarifying that he had not profited off the token and had not moved investor funds, calling reports otherwise “false and unsupported by evidence.”“Like many newly launched digital assets, the NYC Token experienced market volatility,” the spokesperson, Todd Shapiro, said Wednesday.
• “Mr.
• Adams has consistently emphasized transparency, accountability, and responsible innovation.”Despite claims of transparency, Adams has so far declined to reveal his partners in the token.
• But two people close to the project confirmed that Frank Carone, Adams' former chief adviser and one-time lawyer for the Brooklyn Democratic Party, was closely involved in the launch.
• The two people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they had been asked not to disclose the identities of people involved in the token's creation. One of Carone’s former clients, Yosef Sefi Zvieli, a real estate investor linked to several Israeli hotels, was also part of its creation, Shapiro confirmed to The Associated Press.