Share this article

Miami Mayor 'Exploring' Ideas in Crypto Governance

Mayor Suarez is open to everything from blockchain voting to tokenization.

Updated Sep 14, 2021, 10:48 a.m. Published Dec 24, 2020, 6:40 p.m.
Miami Mayor And City Manager Hold Hurricane Season Kickoff Press Conference

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez may try to turn his city into a hotbed for cryptocurrency innovation.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters

Suarez tweeted Thursday that he is "absolutely exploring" making Miami, the seventh-largest city in the U.S., home to the country's first crypto-centric municipal government, seemingly endorsing concepts from tokenization to on-chain voting. He tagged new city resident Anthony Pompliano, founder and partner of Morgan Creek Digital and a crypto Twitter celebrity, for help.

In a subsequent tweet, Suarez said he wants South Florida "on the vanguard of legislation that promotes crypto and makes us forward-leaning on innovation." He said he'd reach out to Wyoming's blockchain doyenne, Caitlin Long, for assistance on that front.

Suarez has been pushing recently for Silicon Valley discontents and hopeful tech startups, fed up with California's taxes and regulations and particularly San Francisco's crime-ridden and feces-covered streets, to move to Miami. The crypto angle may well be the latest strategy of that bid.

Earlier Thursday, Suarez appeared to buy into bitcoin's growing appeal as an alternative investment with a tweet on Ben Mezrich's book about the Winklevoss twins, "Bitcoin Billionaires."

More For You

Pudgy Penguins: A New Blueprint for Tokenized Culture

Pudgy Title Image

Pudgy Penguins is building a multi-vertical consumer IP platform — combining phygital products, games, NFTs and PENGU to monetize culture at scale.

What to know:

Pudgy Penguins is emerging as one of the strongest NFT-native brands of this cycle, shifting from speculative “digital luxury goods” into a multi-vertical consumer IP platform. Its strategy is to acquire users through mainstream channels first; toys, retail partnerships and viral media, then onboard them into Web3 through games, NFTs and the PENGU token.

The ecosystem now spans phygital products (> $13M retail sales and >1M units sold), games and experiences (Pudgy Party surpassed 500k downloads in two weeks), and a widely distributed token (airdropped to 6M+ wallets). While the market is currently pricing Pudgy at a premium relative to traditional IP peers, sustained success depends on execution across retail expansion, gaming adoption and deeper token utility.

More For You

Bitcoin miners surge higher as Anthropic's fundraising efforts boost AI spirits

Bitcoin miners (Shutterstock)

Anthropic is set to raise $20 billion in its latest funding round, double the amount it initially targeted, according to the FT.

What to know:

  • Anthropic, the maker of the Claude chatbot, is set to raise about $20 billion in new funding at a valuation of $350 billion, according to the Financial Times.
  • That's double the amount the company initially sought to raise.
  • The news is boosting spirits in the AI sector, with bitcoin miners turned AI infrastructure providers like IREN, TeraWulf, Cipher Mining and Hut 8 surging higher.