Miami’s crypto heat

Miami’s Francis Suarez revved up his rep as America’s most crypto-savvy mayor by announcing that, in addition to his salary, he’d like part of his 401(k) contributions to be paid in bitcoin. “Oh yeah! Definitely,” Suarez even said when asked if the contributions will start in 2022.

Except, the plan definitely is not that simple, even if other mayors have also declared their desire to be paid in bitcoin. It’s a tad misleading given laws that make bitcoin compensation tricky — and even illegal. But why all the hubbub? Marketing. Cities are scrambling to be called a crypto hub, eyeing the jobs and tax revenue that goes with that label.

Can you actually get paid in bitcoin? Well, yes if you work for some private companies or if you’re a pro athlete like Odell Bechkam Jr. But it’s a bit more complicated for government employees.

• Miami city passed a resolution in February giving employees the option to be paid in bitcoin. But the city can’t actually do that just yet. Florida statutes don’t allow cities to hold bitcoin, and could create big liabilities for the city if the volatile asset drops in value.
• Crypto investment firms like Bitcoin IRA and BitIRA offer crypto as a retirement fund option. But the city of Miami currently does not appear to offer bitcoin as an option, based on its official deferred compensation plan form. The city could not immediately be reached for comment.
• Miami does have an ally in Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has unveiled crypto-related proposals, including letting businesses pay state fees in digital currencies.

Miami is certainly a trailblazer here. And Suarez’s and Miami’s high-profile embrace of bitcoin has inspired other city mayors to do the same.

• Incoming New York City Mayor Eric Adams also said he wants to be paid in bitcoin, and vowed to turn the Big Apple into “the center of the cryptocurrency industry.”
• Tampa Bay Mayor Jane Castor also wants to be paid in bitcoin, tweeting, “Tampa is ready to be the next big hotspot for cryptocurrency.”
• Jackson Mayor Scott Conger acknowledged that his city can’t legally pay him in bitcoin due to Tennessee state law, but he said he was “following the lead” of Suarez and Adams by having his paycheck converted to bitcoin.

Cities want to ride the crypto wave. But these mayors “are not actually getting paid in bitcoin by the city themselves,” Patrick Stanley, founder of the crypto investment firm Freehold, told Protocol.

• Typically they get paid in U.S. dollars and “they're having part of their salary automatically converted on the back end,” he said. “These guys are just doing this on their own free will.”
• But the mayors are touting how they are personally embracing bitcoin and crypto to drive home a point that their cities want to embrace the industry.
• “They want to attract the people who are building the next internet,” Stanley said.

For Suarez, it’s a gamble where he can’t lose. Betting big on bitcoin has little downside for Miami’s mayor, who just won re-election and is a rising star in the Republican party. If his bitcoin plan falls through, he can blame bureaucracy and government inertia. If it pushes through, he becomes known as a governmental innovator and crypto champion. In either case, kind of like crypto, the payoff promises to come down the road.

— Benjamin Pimentel (email | twitter)

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For now it’s just one-on-one chatting, so no group calls, and it’s only available via Android or iOS. But it’s incredible that if you want to talk to someone you can Slack Huddle them, Microsoft Teams them, Google Chat them, Instagram DM them — or, you know, just plain call them. What a time to be alive.

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