Cuomo Bets on Crypto to Boost Slumping Mayoral Campaign
The former governor announced plans to establish NYC as a global crypto hub
Welcome to the Monday edition of the Crypto In America newsletter!
What you’ll read: NYC mayoral hopeful Andrew Cuomo unveils new crypto initiative, Senate to Dems meet with industry C-suites on market structure, and what to watch this week.
Independent mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo is wooing New York City’s crypto community as he faces an uphill battle against Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani, who holds a double-digit lead with just over two weeks before New Yorkers head to the ballot box.
Some industry insiders see it as a late bid to win over a powerful voting bloc he has largely overlooked until now.
What you need to know: As Crypto In America scooped, the former governor’s campaign announced plans on Sunday to hire a Chief Innovation Officer and create an Innovation Council to promote emerging technologies like crypto, AI, and biotech, aiming to make NYC ‘the global hub of the future’ if Cuomo is elected mayor. On crypto, the campaign says it wants to establish the city as the ‘world capital of digital finance and decentralized innovation’ by replacing outdated rules with a modern, pro-innovation framework.
“The next Mayor must make sure we’re also leading in the technologies that will define the next century,” Cuomo said in a statement. “That’s what this position is about: Keeping New York City not just competitive, but dominant in the global innovation economy.”
Sound familiar? Cuomo’s announcement comes just days after Mayor Eric Adams launched the Office of Digital Assets and Blockchain Technology, a new City Hall department focused on growing NYC’s crypto sector. In May, Adams launched a digital assets advisory council to bring jobs and investment to the city, but it’s unclear what impact it has had.
Some speculate that Cuomo may be trying to appeal to pro-crypto voters who had backed Adams, since the mayor is not seeking reelection.
Cuomo’s Crypto Chops: As governor, Cuomo approved Ethereum trading on Gemini in 2016 and established a cryptocurrency task force within the New York Department of Financial Services in 2019. After leaving office, he advised then-offshore exchange OKX on legal issues related to a DOJ anti–money laundering probe, which the exchange ultimately pleaded guilty to and paid over $500 million in penalties.
Cuomo’s opponents, Mamdani and Curtis Sliwa, have largely stayed silent on crypto, except for Mamdani taking aim at Cuomo over his ties to OKX. It’s unclear whether the former governor’s late embrace of the sector will translate into votes.
Industry reaction to his announcement has so far been mixed.
Some, like MoonPay President and New Yorker Keith Grossman, believe Cuomo is simply the best choice compared with the controversial Mamdani, whose socialist views many fear could destroy the city.
“Choosing Cuomo is not about ignoring the very real problems our City faces. It’s about ensuring they have a real chance to be fixed,” he said.
Others, including Thomas Pacchia, founder of NYC’s Bitcoin bar PubKey, say Cuomo’s crypto support falls short.
“He’s run the single most incompetent campaign since Hillary in 2016. We invited him to PubKey before the primary and he (or his team) ignored us,” Pacchia said. “At best it’s too little too late.”
With or without crypto’s support, the clock is ticking until the November 4 election and the odds are not in Cuomo’s favor. On Polymarket, which correctly predicted President Trump’s 2024 win, Cuomo’s odds are just 6%, compared with Mamdani’s 93% and Curtis Sliwa’s 1%.
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Find out how Avalanche is accelerating global finance.
👀 What To Watch This Week
Market structure: Senate Democrats, led by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), will host a roundtable with at least ten industry C-suite executives on Wednesday to discuss the path forward for market structure legislation, according to three people familiar with the matter. Politico first reported plans for the roundtable last week, while Crypto In America was first to report the attendees.
Confirmed industry participants include Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Galaxy CEO Mike Novogratz, Kraken CEO Dave Ripley, Chainlink CEO Sergey Nazarov, and Uniswap CEO Hayden Adams. Plus, Circle Chief Strategy Officer Dante Disparte, Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty, Jito Chief Legal Officer Rebecca Rettig, a16z Crypto General Counsel Miles Jennings, Paradigm’s VP of Regulatory Affairs Justin Slaughter, and Solana Policy Institute President Kristin Smith. Other names may be added to the list.
The meeting comes as negotiations with Republican counterparts have stalled in recent days following fallout and industry backlash over a leaked Dem proposal to regulate DeFi. No word yet on when formal negotiations might restart.
DeFi Education Fund Executive Director Amanda Tuminelli told Crypto In America that, since the fallout over the proposal, productive conversations have been taking place between Senate lawmakers, their staffers, and industry.
The shutdown: Week 4 of the government shutdown, now the third longest in history, with no end in sight as Democrats and Republicans remain at odds. The House has been out of session for over a month with no plans to return until funding resumes. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) will try again this week to pass a bill to pay federal workers and service members still on the job, but he’ll need Democrats’ support to get it through. Meanwhile, thousands of federal workers remain furloughed, and thousands more have been laid off.
Here’s what else we’re keeping an eye on:
Tuesday
9:00 AM: The Fed will host a payments innovation conference featuring Ark’s Cathie Wood, Circle’s Heath Tarbert, and reps from Coinbase, BNY Mellon, BlackRock, Franklin Templeton and others.
Wednesday
8:00 AM: BCA Research will hold its annual investment conference in NYC, focusing on tech opportunities beyond AI, including stablecoins and Bitcoin. Crypto In America will be there on the ground.
Thursday
10:00 AM: The Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing on “Rightsizing Regulation to Promote American Opportunity” with top bank regulators: Fed Vice Chair Michelle Bowman, acting FDIC Chair Travis Hill, Comptroller Jonathan Gould, and NCUA Chair Kyle Hauptman.
Friday
8:30 AM: The BLS releases September Consumer Price Index (CPI) data
10:00 AM: The University of Michigan publishes its final consumer sentiment survey for October
Remember, new editions of the Crypto In America newsletter drop every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7AM EST.
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