Andrew Yang Runs For New York Mayor, Aiming To Make It A BTC Hub

Andrew Yang runs for New York Mayor and aims to make it the next Bitcoin hub, similar to the idea of the Miami Mayor Francis Suarez as reported in the previous bitcoin news.

Following the steps of other US mayors, Andrew Yang runs for New York Mayor and wants to attract Bitcoin and cryptocurrency companies to New York and the state’s BitLicnese is one of the roadblocks to accomplishing that. Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang is the frontrunner to become the new New York City Mayor and his vision for the city is to make it the new hub for Bitcoin. He wrote:

“As mayor of NYC—the world’s financial capital—I would invest in making the city a hub for BTC and other cryptocurrencies.”

I am sensing some competition @Mayorsuarez

Don’t worry all of us $LINK marines are here to welcome you aboard in Reno! @AndrewYang @FrancisSuarez https://t.co/T8FjlFtlJC

— Mayor Hillary Schieve (@MayorSchieve) February 12, 2021

The statement came as other US mayors aim to attract more crypto activity in their cities. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is working on a bitcoin proposal to add to the city’s balance sheet and even wooed crypto exchanges and mining executives to make Miami the real crypto hub.  Mayor Hillary Shieve from Reno, Nevada is also looking to bring more crypto to her city as well as incorporate smart contracts into the municipal operations. In the past month, she outed herself as the Link Marine (Chainlink supporter) and said that she’d really like Reno to be a “test market” for crypto.

As mayor of NYC – the world’s financial capital – I would invest in making the city a hub for BTC and other cryptocurrencies.

— Andrew Yang🧢🗽🇺🇸 (@AndrewYang) February 11, 2021

Nevada and Florida have a different financial and regulatory environment for the crypto companies as neither of them have state income taxes so instead they rely on other revenue streams. Nevada is also making an entry in tech and crypto companies as the government drafted legislation that will see bigger companies form their own local governments. Neither has the BitLicense which is a controversial set of regulations that limited how many cryptocurrencies companies operate in the New York state. Companies like Gemini chose to play nice with the NYSDFS while others like ShapeShift left town.

As a mayor, Yang will have no control over the state agency like NYDFS but New York is not the average municipality. The state benefits from financial activity that is generated by the US’s biggest city.  NYC is the most important jurisdiction for the entire crypto industry which is why he is so interested in it. Yang is a well-known proponent of BTC and crypto in general and was registered as a participant in the upcoming New York City Mayoral election according to the latest campaign finance board.