Why the Eric Adams Memecoin Is On Brand
Plus, Polygon acquires U.S.-licensed crypto payments firm
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
The Defiant’s 2025 in review:
- How Digital Asset Treasuries Went Mainstream in 2025
- RWAs Became Wall Street’s Gateway to Crypto in 2025
- Prediction Markets Expand from DeFi Niche to Global News Sources
- Stablecoins Became Crypto’s First Mainstream Use Case in 2025
- Looking Ahead: The Biggest Names in Crypto Predict New Bitcoin Highs and a Tokenization Boom in 2026
Read more below! But first, please give our sponsors some love; they make this newsletter possible.
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We’re back! Here’s what you need to know in web3 today
📈 Markets in the Past 24 Hours
| TICKER | VALUE | 24H | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Bitcoin | $96,909 | 3.81 % |
 | Ethereum | $3,339.6 | 4.99 % |
 | XRP | $2.14 | 2.32 % |
 | BNB | $942.03 | 2.18 % |
 | Solana | $146.11 | 2.31 % |
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
In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, Chris Storaker sits down with Alex Garn, chief product officer at Borderless, to unpack how stablecoins are quietly transforming cross-border payments — and what it actually takes to move money at scale across jurisdictions.
We explore why stablecoins are moving beyond trading and DeFi collateral into real-world enterprise payments, where they already outperform legacy rails on settlement speed, transparency, and custody — especially across emerging market corridors like Latin America and Southeast Asia.
Top News in the Past 24 Hours
- Yield Suffers $3.7M Loss Due to ‘Unintended’ Stablecoin Swap DeFi yield optimization protocol YO suffered a roughly $3.73 million loss on Tuesday after a vault swap turned about $3.84 million worth of stkGHO into only around $122,000 in USDC. Why it matters: While the incident was not a smart contract exploit or a hack, it highlights a key risk in DeFi: extreme slippage, when large trades can result in major losses if routed through thin liquidity or high-fee pools.
- Polygon to Become US-Regulated Payments Platform Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution Polygon is set to become an officially recognized and regulated payments platform in the United States following its acquisitions of Coinme and Sequence. Why it matters: The acquisition comes following a strong yearly open for the POL token, which is up 57% over the last two weeks.
- Paxos’ Asset Base Grew 450% in 2025 The asset issuer, broadly known for issuing PayPal’s stablecoin as well as Paxos Gold, has recorded substantial growth over the past year, with its total asset valuation reaching $6.8 billion from just $1.2 billion in January 2025. Why it matters: While PYUSD accounts for much of the growth, the firm’s gold-backed token is up 72% over the last year, helping drive its total valuation higher.
Trending on The Defiant
- Bitcoin Climbs Back Over $95K as Traders Digest New Inflation Data
- Yield Suffers $3.7M Loss Due to ‘Unintended’ Stablecoin Swap
- Polygon to Become US-Regulated Payments Platform
- Crypto Market Structure Bill Heads to Key Senate Votes This Week
- Lighter Token Struggles as Farmers Transition to Alternative Exchanges
- Dubai Bans Privacy Tokens on Regulated Exchanges
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