Cryptocurrencies have gone a long way from an obscure asset class to a mainstream investment. Along that way, they have unsurprisingly become a topic of political discussion. The debates span more than just regulations — in recent times, the stances taken toward digital assets are becoming more and more of a chasm between the two major political parties in the United States — the Democrats and the Republicans.
It comes as little surprise that Republicans are broadly supportive of the new asset class. A focus on deregulation and free market principles meshes well with cryptocurrency. Likewise, it’s not exactly shocking that Democrats, who usually favor stricter regulation, are lagging behind their rivals in terms of crypto adoption.
There are outliers, of course — Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer, for instance, is perhaps the highest-ranked Democrat to voice pro-crypto opinions. He’s not the earliest adopter in his party, however — that title most likely belongs to Eric Adams, the controversial mayor of New York.
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Back in 2022, Adams was the target of widespread mockery over his decision to receive his first three paychecks in the form of Bitcoin (BTC). In an event at the America LGBTQ+ Museum on December 3, the mayor of the ‘Big Apple’ reflected on that period — and seems to have gotten the last laugh. Here is how much those three paychecks could be worth right now.
Adams received a tidy sum of Bitcoin back in 2022
Before actually taking office, then mayor-elect Adams announced his intention to receive payments in the form of BTC in early late 2021. As of early January that year, Adams had not yet received his first paycheck, as covered by Finbold.
Once taxes are taken into account, each check would have netted Adams roughly $10,000, per publicly available data. He assumed office on January 1 — so for the sake of simplicity, we will assume he received his first check on February 1 — and subsequent checks on March 1 and April 1 of 2022.
At the time of the first check, Bitcoin was trading at approximately $38,650. On March 1 2022, the leading digital asset had a price of $43,230, and at the time of the third paycheck, it was trading at $45,530. At press time, BTC was trading at $102,632.
Now let’s compare that price with the prices at the time Adams was paid. The price of the premier cryptocurrency has rallied by 165.54%, 137.40%, and 125.41%, respectively since then. The average gain is thus 142.78% on an investment worth $30,000 — in other words, Adams’ BTC is now worth roughly $72,834, a gain of $42,834.
Featured image via Shutterstock
