Despite the fact that his actual term at the head of the New York government begins in about 1.5 months, Eric Adams, the city’s elected mayor, has already begun to govern after propaganda. Making Empire City more business and tech friendly is Adams’ primary focus, and to the delight of the crypto community, the new mayor has repeatedly pledged his support for everything Bitcoin related. (BTC) do.
Days after his November 2 victory, Adams, the former president of Brooklyn and a former police officer, issued a series of crypto-friendly statements, ranging from a promise to take the first three Bitcoin salaries to a proposal to include digital finance courses in a curriculum. school program.
However, the mayor’s office is just one of several centers of power with a say in setting the rules for the financial industry, not the most influential. The regulatory strength currently in New York State makes it one of the strongest jurisdictions in the United States for crypto companies. So what power does the mayor of New York have to make real change?
New York State Cryptographic Regulation
This is a long-awaited event for one of the largest financial centers in the world, when a high-ranking official dealing with cryptocurrency works in the city. Gary Devol, head of financial markets and regulatory practices at law firm Katten, told Cointelegraph that New York is one of the most challenging jurisdictions in the United States to do digital asset business.
The main reason for this difficulty, according to DeWaal, is New York’s BitLicense system, which requires organizations with a wide range of crypto-related activities involving the state of New York or its citizens to obtain a specialized license from the New York State Department. Financial Services.
These actions include receiving or transferring digital currency; store, store or provide cryptocurrency on behalf of others; Buying and selling cryptocurrencies or providing exchange services as a client company; Controlling, managing and issuing digital currency.
Konstantin Boyko Romanovsky, CEO of Allnodes blockchain, told Cointelegraph that BitLicense is not required either for mining operations or for companies offering their services and products in exchange for cryptocurrency. “This is a start, but it’s a tight niche and needs to be expanded,” he added.
Bo Onei, compliance director at Bitcoin ATM vendor Coinsource, one of the first companies to obtain a BitLicense license in New York state, said the purpose of the rules has always been to protect consumers, deter bad players, and define operational requirements and requirements. Responsible for cryptocurrency companies. However, Onei acknowledged that implementing these rules is often far from perfect:
“It is absolutely true that the time and delays in obtaining BitLicense can be frustrating. Simplifying the application process and shortening the time taken to comply with NYDFS should be a top priority for improvement.”
BitLicense side effects
Last week, the community-focused cryptocurrency project CityCoin launched New YorkCityCoin (NYCCoin), a digital resource that allows users to fill the city’s treasury by mining it while earning rewards through the Stacks protocol and its native token, STX. While CityCoins has not formally partnered with New York in this initiative, Adams enthusiastically welcomed NYCCoins.
However, there is a problem here. New Yorkers do not have a legal way to mine a coin to support their city.
Cointelegraph’s first copywriter Jonathan DeYoung — a New Yorker who recently wrote The New York Guide to Cryptocurrency for Cointelegraph magazine — notes that as a New Yorker, he has no option to buy STX because it is not available on any exchange that has a BitLicense license:
“STX is required to mine NYCCoin, which means I can’t mine NYCCoin even if I live in New York. Sure, you can use a VPN and buy it through a non-KYC platform like Binance, but that’s terrible. Oddly enough, the average New Yorker wouldn’t be allowed to mine coins metal from his city.”
While this controversy could be overcome in the short term if a BitLicense exchange like Coinbase adds support for the token, it suggests that, in a broader framework, the current regulatory system could isolate New Yorkers from large parts of their digital asset infrastructure.
