On Monday morning, Eric Adams held a press conference near Times Square, ditching his much-used “NYC Mayor” baseball cap for one that read “$NYC,” to announce his first act after the mayoralty: a crypto token. “This is going to address many of the issues we are facing not only in this city but in cities in America,” he said.

By Monday afternoon, Adams’s coin had briefly surged in value before an account linked to its issuer pulled a ton of money out of $NYC, tanking the token’s value for a quick profit — and fueling widespread outrage and accusations that Adams was ripping people off. Now, a former Adams crypto adviser (and Catholic knight) has entered the drama, claiming that Adams stole the idea for the $NYC coin in the first place.

Adams has been boosting cryptocurrency in New York for years, even taking his first paycheck as mayor in bitcoin four years ago. But his initial announcement on Monday was still a surprise: This was his first business venture as a private citizen — a meme coin with a mission to, as he put it, “fight antisemitism and anti-Americanism”? He was confident in the new investment opportunity. “We’re about to change the game,” he posted on X that afternoon.

Perhaps he was just playing the game. Less than an hour after $NYC token’s trading launch, Adams was fighting allegations that he had engaged in a rug pull. A time-tested (

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