Why the Eric Adams Memecoin Is On Brand

Olivia Capozzalo & Jona Jaupi
January 14, 2026

gm Defiers!

Today’s big story:

Perhaps the most surprising part of former New York City Mayor Eric Adams shilling a memecoin is how unsurprising it feels.

In other news:

YO loses $3.7M in “bizarre” swap
Polygon becomes a regulated U.S. platform
Paxos-issued assets grow 450% in a year

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Today’s Big Story

Eric Adams Promoted a Memecoin. It Went About as Well as You’d Think

Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams has once more found himself in the middle of a scandal — this time in crypto. The politician recently promoted a new token, dubbed NYC, in the hopes of combatting anti-semitism and “anti-Americanism” (whatever that means). The token surged almost instantly, then dropped just as fast.

At its peak, NYC briefly hit a market cap of around $580 million, before falling hard (currently, the market cap is around $38.7 million). On-chain analysts later flagged a major liquidity move: a wallet linked to the token’s deployer reportedly removed about $2.5 million in USDC liquidity near the top.

And even though $1.5 million was later added back after the token had already dropped more than 60%, more than roughly $900,000 was still unreturned, according to on-chain tracking. Data from Nansen shows that one wallet booked about $508,000 in realized profit, while another ate roughly $713,000 in realized losses.

While Adams is hardly the first public figure to use fame to fuel a memecoin (cough cough, U.S. President Donald Trump), he may be one of the first to try to wrap it in civic branding. What’s more, he’s offered little clarity on who’s behind it, who controls the wallets, and where any proceeds actually go.

CoinGecko even flagged the token as high-risk due to concentrated holdings in unidentified wallets. “Please exercise caution,” the warning reads.

When addressing rug-pull allegations, the official NYC Token X account claimed its partners “rebalanced the liquidity” because demand at launch was “overwhelming.” The team said it added more funds back into the pool, writing: “We’re in it for the long haul!”

Of course, analysts and onlookers quickly questioned the legitimacy of such a move. Nicolai Sondergaard, a research analyst at Nansen, told The Defiant diplomatically that the liquidity behavior “does seem to fit the umbrella term that is ‘rug pulls.’”

If it were a legitimate rebalance, Sondergaard argued, it should’ve been announced beforehand — and handled by adjusting ranges, not yanking liquidity and adding some back after the price had already collapsed. The move, he added, basically trapped traders and forced many to sell at a loss.

The NYC story comes after a year marked by high-profile rug pulls and the launch of millions of memecoins that have lost most of their value. Less than two months into 2025, we saw Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, briefly promote what turned out to be a scam token, LIBRA, causing it to pump before plunging 97%.

Just a month before that, and days before President Trump’s inauguration, the official TRUMP memecoin launched and saw a sharp rally in its first few days of trading. It’s now down over 80% on the year.

A New York Eye Roll

Coming back to Adams and NYC, what’s maybe the most surprising part of the whole thing is how unsurprising it feels. To anyone who’s lived in New York since 2022, Adams being at the center of a potential rug pull doesn’t exactly read as shocking.

Ask around and you’ll hear more about nightlife photos, celebrity hangouts, and tabloid headlines than any single policy win. And no, none of us forgot the bribery allegations connected to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's government.

At this point, the NYC token story feels less like a crypto anomaly and more like the latest chapter in the Eric Adams brand…but to quote the man himself: “Let your haters be your waiters as you sit down at the club night of success.”

Xx, Jona, staff reporter at The Defiant (and native New Yorker… Go Knicks!)

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🎬WATCH

How Stablecoins Are Rewiring Global Payments | Borderless CPO Alex Garn

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