James Cirrone

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has dropped out of the 2024 US presidential race, making him the first Republican to quit campaigning.&nbsp;



Suarez ended his bid for the White House after spending just over two months on the campaign trail.&nbsp;



Suarez released a statement on X saying that running for the US presidency was one of the “greatest honors” of his life.



“It was a privilege to come so close to appearing on stage with the other candidates at last week’s first debate,” Suarez wrote. “While I have decided to suspend my campaign for President, my commitment to making this a better nation for every American remains.”



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Running for President of the United States has been one of the greatest honors of my life. This country has given so much to my family and me. The prospect of giving back at the highest levels of public service is a motivator if not a calling. Throughout this process, I have met…&mdash; Mayor Francis Suarez (@FrancisSuarez) <a href="https://twitter.com/FrancisSuarez/status/1696566861196914997?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 29, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Suarez was perhaps the most outspoken Republican presidential candidate about crypto. <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/new-york-mayor-elect-gives-city-token-seal-of-approval">His mayoral administration was friendly to CityCoins’ first project</a>, dubbed MiamiCoin.&nbsp;



Suarez also explored giving bitcoin yield to Miami citizens who staked on MiamiCoin, which began trading in August 2021. The token has lost over 61% in value in the last year, per CoinGecko <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/miamicoin">data</a>. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has also emerged as a voice in the Republican party on crypto, though <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/desantis-pro-bitcoin-anti-cbdc">his concerns are centered squarely on the introduction of a central bank digital currency</a> (CBDC).



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/us-presidential-candidates-crypto">Here’s what US presidential hopefuls are saying about crypto</a>



Ultimately, Suarez’s campaign failed to gain much traction.



As Suarez alluded to in his post, his decision to suspend his campaign came days after he mistakenly believed he had qualified for the first Republican primary debate on Aug. 23. He announced prior to the debate that he had met the Republican National Committee’s polling and fundraising requirements.&nbsp;



Nine candidates, including former president Donald Trump who didn’t appear — qualified for the debate. Suarez wasn’t one of them, and Trump continues to outstrip his opponents in public polling.



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Bitcoin-friendly Miami mayor quits US presidential race

Casey Wagner

<div id="highlights-block_618e449496d75" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>NYCCoin began mining Wednesday and is expected to start trading soon</li>
 <li>Mayor-elect Adams is excited about the opportunities crypto presents for New York</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Thanks to New York City Mayor-elect Eric Adams, the ‘NYCCoin’ token will become community-led project CityCoins’ second launch.&nbsp;



The announcement comes after CityCoins’ first project, MiamiCoin, brought in $21.3 million dollars for the South Florida city since it <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/miami-has-earned-5-million-and-counting-in-miamicoin-funds/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">began trading</a> in August. 



Anyone can transfer Stacks (STX) tokens to mine MiamiCoin, and a percentage is placed in Miami’s cryptocurrency wallet. MiamiCoin is available to trade on crypto exchange OKCoin.&nbsp;



“Miami has been an incredible success,” said Patrick Stanley, a CityCoins community lead. “The citizens of Miami have benefited to the tune of $21 million so far, and that&#8217;s only going to grow, it&#8217;s going to grow forever. The amount of money in Stacks that’s contributed never goes backwards and never stops, never stalls, it just keeps going up.”



Adams has quickly become known as a crypto-friendly mayor. He called bitcoin a “new way of paying for goods and services throughout the entire globe” during a <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/08/bitcoin-in-new-york-eric-adams-says-crypto-should-be-taught-in-school.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CNN interview</a> Monday, and has said that schools “must&#8221; teach about blockchain technology.



NYCCoin mining began on Wednesday, according to the CityCoins. Adams welcomed the project on Twitter, saying “we&#8217;re counting on tech and innovation to help drive our city forward.”



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">We&#39;re glad to welcome you to the global home of Web3! We&#39;re counting on tech and innovation to help drive our city forward. <a href="https://t.co/SY9pv1Ebct">https://t.co/SY9pv1Ebct</a>&mdash; Eric Adams (@ericadamsfornyc) <a href="https://twitter.com/ericadamsfornyc/status/1457803063666745346?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 8, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Miami officials voted to approve access to the funds, held in a crypto wallet, in September. On  Thursday, Miami mayor Francis Suarez told <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2021/11/11/miami-to-give-bitcoin-yield-from-miamicoin-to-its-citizens/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CoinDesk TV</a> that the city will soon be distributing “bitcoin yield” to citizens, earned from staking MiamiCoin. 



“We’re going to be the first city in America to give a bitcoin yield as a dividend directly to its residents,” Suarez said during the interview.&nbsp;



Adams has not yet commented how NYCCoin funds may be used, but he did follow Suarez’s lead and stated that he would be accepting his first three paychecks in bitcoin. The two leaders <a href="https://twitter.com/FrancisSuarez/status/1456316140284678149?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">expressed on Twitter</a> their desire to make their respective cities into “crypto capitals.” 



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2021-11-12-Suarez-shutterstock_1749213761.png" alt="" class="wp-image-11048" width="220" height="282" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2021-11-12-Suarez-shutterstock_1749213761.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2021-11-12-Suarez-shutterstock_1749213761.png?w=234 234w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2021-11-12-Suarez-shutterstock_1749213761.png?w=200 200w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2021-11-12-Suarez-shutterstock_1749213761.png?w=203 203w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2021-11-12-Suarez-shutterstock_1749213761.png?w=171 171w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2021-11-12-Suarez-shutterstock_1749213761.png?w=62 62w" sizes="(max-width: 220px) 100vw, 220px" /><figcaption>Miami Mayor Francis Suarez</figcaption></figure></div>



“Having a leader like Mayor Suarez,” said Stanley, “who is not Republican, he&#8217;s not Democrat, he just wants to move forward, and same with Eric Adams&#8230;They&#8217;re like the perfect archetypes for leadership in the crypto era, and they&#8217;re going to accelerate and modernize their city as a function of just having the CityCoins.”&nbsp;



Suarez is in fact a registered Republican, although the mayor’s office in Miami is officially nonpartisan. Adams is a Democrat.&nbsp;



The CityCoins project is not the first to try a community token model. The Colu DLT platform shut down its blockchain-based Colu Local Network (CLN) token following <a href="https://icobench.com/ico/colu-local-network" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a 2018 ICO</a> that raised $23 million in ether. CLN was used for retail purchases and encouraged consumers to shop locally with incentives. 



The token launched in four cities, including London and Tel Aviv, but Colu later cited regulatory and technical challenges as the reason for ending the project. The company <a href="https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2019/08/151028-colu-gives-ico-money-back-apparently-companies-can-do-the-right-thing-also-without-a-regulator-telling-them-what-to-do/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">repurchased and burned</a> all tokens in 2019. 



CityCoins is currently working on AustinCoin, according to its website. “Mining is coming soon,” the page states. In late September, the site listed SanFranciscoCoin as “coming soon,” although it has since been removed and no additional information has been released about the project.



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New York Mayor-Elect Gives City Token Seal of Approval

<div id="highlights-block_61548fa1c6e80" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Miami has earned $5 million+ from the new token MiamiCoin and city officials just voted to approve accessing the funds</li>
 <li>MiamiCoin is the first of its kind, although San Francisco is following suit soon, according to the CityCoin website</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



The city of Miami has generated $5 million from its new cryptocurrency in just over a month. Now, commissioners just have to decide how to spend it.&nbsp;



“We’re going to have conversations with the commission as more money is generated of what is the most effective means of using those funds,” Miami Mayor Francis Suarez told the <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article254210608.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Miami Herald</a>. “It’s a very, very new technology. We want to be safe. We’ve done significant due diligence, but we want to be abundantly careful.”



The funds are a result of CityCoins’ first, and so far only, token, MiamiCoin. <a href="https://www.citycoins.co/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CityCoin</a> is a cryptocurrency developer that works with cities to create tokens that individuals can mine, stack, borrow and lend. 



MiamiCoin is mined by forwarding the Stacks token, $STX, to the MiamiCoin smart contract contract. When tokens are successfully mined, 30% of $STX forwarded by miners to the Stacks protocol goes into a wallet reserved for Maimi.&nbsp;



The remaining 70% is reserved for miners to distribute or stack for rewards, which come in the form of $STX or bitcoin.&nbsp;



Cryptocurrency exchange OKcoin is currently the only platform offering MiamiCoin trading&nbsp;



The project was first launched in August and while Miami does not officially endorse the coin, commissioners voted to accept the funds in the reserved wallet.&nbsp;



“I think that it’s a very low-cost experiment to gain public support and momentum for a great cause,” said David Tawil, president of ProChain Capital.&nbsp;



Suarez, who has <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/22-5m-miami-penthouse-crypto-deal-could-transform-real-estate-market/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">long expressed a positive view</a> on cryptocurrencies, is also interested in expanding mining opportunities in South Florida. He has been floating thoughts about clean energy mining initiatives, including those powered by solar or nuclear energy, in recent weeks to promote his plans for Miami to become America’s hub for bitcoin and crypto. 



When asked if he expects many other cities to follow suit with a token anytime soon, Tawil was skeptical.&nbsp;



“Unlikely, until Miami has notched some measurement of success. Maybe a few other cities that have vocally embraced crypto. Some places in Wyoming,” he said. “But, I would expect that Miami will be unique in its full-throated support for crypto generally for some time.”



A SanFranciscoCoin is coming soon, according to CityCoins’ website. It is unclear when it may launch or if officials in the California city will accept funds the same way as Miami.



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