U.S. Mayor Champions Crypto 'To Erase Income Inequality'

At the US Conference of Mayors' meeting in D.C. this week, there's buzz around the idea of giving cryptocurrency accounts to low-income people, Jennifer A. Kingson, Joann Muller, and Erica Pandey reported for Axios.

Photo Insert: Mayor Francis Suarez of Miami

Why it matters: Cities have been experimenting with newfangled ways to address income inequality — like guaranteed income programs — and the latest wave of trials could involve paying benefits or dividends in bitcoin, stablecoin, or other digital currencies.

Mayor Francis Suarez of Miami — a leading champion of crypto — has vowed that Miami will be "the first city in America to give a bitcoin yield as a dividend directly to its residents" through its MiamiCoin initiative, which started in 2021 as a way to raise revenue for the city.

As the new president of the US Conference of Mayors, Suarez has been proselytizing for crypto at this week's meeting — and tells Axios that he's been getting traction.

However, critics of the idea of paying people in crypto — including a proposal by Suarez to pay city workers in bitcoin — point to the volatility of these currencies, which are unregulated and historically unstable.

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