By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 18th, 2024
Bill Ackman’s latest comments came after a New York resident expressed his dismay on Twitter over the city’s poor crypto regulations and how they may drive him to leave.
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman has requested the New York officials to break down barriers in the crypto scene in a bid to create room for innovation in the state. “We can’t lose any more New Yorkers,” Ackman wrote in a tweet, and stated in what seems to be a deleted tweet that cryptocurrency innovation in New York should be a “top priority.”
The billionaire urged newly elected Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul to investigate the rising regulatory concerns, highlighting the removal of regulatory barriers as well as loosening existing crypto laws as key components which can be crucial to the city becoming a crypto hub.
Bill Ackman’s latest comments came after a New York resident expressed his dismay on Twitter over the city’s poor crypto regulations and how they may drive him to leave. The user slammed the city’s Bitlicense regulation, claiming that as a result of it, he was unable to register an account with any major US exchange for his venture capital firm.
Bill Ackman, in a retweet to the New Yorker’s tweet, tagged the New York City mayor together with the city’s governor and stated:
“Let’s fix this right away. We can’t lose any more New Yorkers. NY is on its way to becoming a crypto center of innovation. Let’s remove barriers, create opportunities for growth and innovation, and help our state and city.”
Bitlicense was established in 2015 to regulate several areas of cryptocurrency issuance and trade. As such, any virtual currency business operating in the state of New York or managing such investments from New York residents must obtain the license before starting operations. Many crypto exchanges and firms are however concerned about the strict licensing requirements which many fear will drive some to move out of the city.
New York, in comparison to other states in the United States, has one of the hostile environments for crypto and crypto-related business, with the system already driving away most crypto trading platforms and DeFi protocols.
Eric Adams, the newly elected Mayor of the city who was known for his crypto-friendly thoughts before the elections, recently became the subject of severe backlash after revealing that he was against bitcoin mining in the state. Adams stated that he supports bitcoin but not cryptocurrency mining during a local government budget hearing with Albany political leaders.
The New York City mayor seems to have loosened his stance on crypto as he converted his first paycheck into Bitcoin and Ethereum last month, and stated that he plans to acquire additional BTC and ETH with two more paychecks coming up this year.
Adams is also mulling a proposal that would allow small companies to accept payments in digital assets to promote crypto innovation in the city. In a November 2021 interview with CNN, Eric Adams stated that their administration was working on this issue.