Leader of pro-Eric Adams super PAC banking on crypto cash

NEW YORK — A leader of the super PAC supporting New York City Mayor Eric Adams hopes to raise upwards of $10 million from the cryptocurrency community — and has alarmed government ethics groups in the process.

In May, Eric Lerner, president of the Empower NYC super PAC, attended the same Bitcoin conference in Las Vegas where Adams traveled on the taxpayer’s dime to speak. During an on-camera interview at the event — portions of which were scrubbed from the internet after questions from POLITICO — Lerner praised the self-described “crypto-Mayor,” favorably compared Adams to Donald Trump and predicted his super PAC could raise enough cash to make the incumbent competitive in the November general election.

The key, he said, would be tapping digital currency proponents eager to see Adams usher in a new, tech-forward style of government employing crypto currency and blockchain.

“To be frank, the only hurdle is: The mayor needs to win reelection. And in order for that to happen, that’s where the super PAC, Empower NYC, comes in,” Lerner, a New York City lawyer, said during an interview with DeFiance Media. “We need big dollars so that we can compete … buy media ads and do social media marketing.”

The PAC’s cash would be a godsend for Adams, whose campaign has been hobbled by the Campaign Finance Board’s decision to deny him millions of dollars in public matching funds, in part because of allegations of a straw donor scheme contained in the mayor’s now defunct federal bribery case. That case was dismissed in April at the behest of Trump’s Department of Justice.

But the decision by the president of Empower NYC to speak about the PAC’s work at the same conference that the mayor, in his official capacity, delivered a crypto-focused address on city policy has stoked discomfort inside ethics organizations. And Lerner’s comments further muddied the purpose of an official Adams’ administration trip that also included a campaign fundraiser at a Las Vegas restaurant, as reported by the New York Post.

“There certainly is an aura of collaboration and cooperation here that absolutely would bear investigation by the Campaign Finance Board,” said Susan Lerner, head of the government ethics organization Common Cause New York.

The mayor’s campaign denied any knowledge or involvement in the affairs of Empower NYC. And City Hall said the Las Vegas jaunt was official business and not a conflict of interest.

“In his continued pursuit of making New York City the crypto capital of the world, Mayor Adams attended the 2025 Bitcoin Conference, where he gave two keynote speeches and conducted multiple interviews in his official capacity as mayor,” spokesperson Kayla Mamelak Altus said. “The overwhelming majority of the trip was dedicated to discussing crypto policy for the city. We are aware of the Conflicts of Interest Board’s guidance on separating political activities and city events, and we follow that advice.”

Unlike campaigns that have limits on how much they can raise and spend, super PACs, also known as independent expenditure committees, have no such guardrails. Andrew Cuomo, for example, benefitted from around $26 million in outside spending during the primary — a monetary advantage specifically cited by Eric Lerner during his interview at the Bitcoin conference. There is, however, one major catch. These super PACs are not allowed to coordinate with the candidate or campaign.

Yet in one clip of Eric Lerner speaking at the Sin City conference, he recounts how he helped set up the NYC Crypto Summit at Gracie Mansion — the official mayoral residence — which took place just days earlier. Adams hosted the confab along with his chief technology officer, Matt Fraser. At the kickoff, the mayor gave a speech that began: “I smell money.”

In other clips from the Las Vegas gathering, Eric Lerner recalls first meeting the mayor 20 years ago and says, if reelected, Adams will get rid of diversity, equity and inclusion programs — something the administration denies.

Eric Lerner also expounded on the possibility of Trump endorsing the mayor or persuading GOP candidate Curtis Sliwa to drop out so Adams could run on the Republican line. (Trump has had kind words for the mayor, but Sliwa has said death alone will keep him off the ballot.)

In one portion of Eric Lerner’s Vegas interview, Fraser, the city’s chief technology officer, can be seen chatting just feet away in the background. A day later, Fraser would go on to deliver remarks before an Adams campaign fundraiser at a restaurant on the strip, as the Post reported. And at another point during Eric Lerner’s sitdown at the summit, the mayor himself can be seen walking through the crowd along with Tiffany Raspberry, his deputy mayor for intergovernmental affairs.

John Kaehny, head of government watchdog Reinvent Albany, said the mayor’s conduct would be unlikely to rise to any formal violation. But he still found the overlap between the candidate, the campaign and the PAC concerning.

“It’s completely unethical,” he said. “The mayor and his team know exactly what they’re doing.”

Findings of collaboration between super PACs and campaigns can come with pricey consequences. The Campaign Finance Board, which regulates money in city elections, fined the Cuomo camp more than $750,000 for improperly coordinating with a super PAC on ad spending.

The board declined to comment for this story.

In addition to concerns about coordination, Susan Lerner, the Common Cause leader, cautioned elected officials not to pursue policies primarily to net campaign donations and expressed concern at the overlap between the mayor’s crypto platform and the comments from the super PAC supporting him.

During the Bitcoin conference interview, Eric Lerner gushed over proposals the mayor would summarize at a keynote address the following day: Allowing residents to pay fines in digital currency, interweaving the city’s bonds with crypto, utilizing blockchain technology for recordkeeping and advocating to relax restrictions on state virtual currency licenses.

“When asked: What is [Adams] going to do for crypto? It’s: What is he not going to do for crypto,” he said. “You ask him and he says yes. Ok? Literally.”

With such an appealing platform, the PAC president predicted the money would soon be rolling in.

“We just started a month ago. We have a lot of catching up to do,” he said. “And with the crypto community’s support, and what I’m being told soft commitment-wise, we’ll be there in no time. In the next couple weeks, I figure we’ll be at $5 million, $10 million.”

Eric Lerner did not respond to a request for comment.

Abe George, a Brooklyn attorney and chair and chief executive of Empower NYC, said Eric Lerner has been involved with crypto issues for more than a decade and has attended the Bitcoin conference the last four years.

“He was never involved with any fundraisers at the Bitcoin event and is not on the Mayor’s crypto council,” George said in a statement that defended the actions of the PAC while praising Adams’ record on crime, housing and the economy. “Any opinions Mr. Lerner expressed are his own, and not of the PAC, and any insinuations of unethical behavior is libelous.”

Campaign spokesperson Todd Shapiro said Adams was invited to the conference to promote the city as a future crypto hub and that his role was entirely policy focused. If Eric Lerner was there as well — and Shapiro noted 35,000 people attended the event — he acted on his own volition.

“Mayor Adams has always and will always follow all campaign finance laws and regulations,” Shapiro said in a statement. “There is a clear legal and ethical separation between his campaign and any outside entity — and that line is respected.”

As for the crypto summit that Eric Lerner helped organize at Gracie Mansion while serving as president of the pro-Adams PAC, Shapiro said it was a non-political gathering focused on innovation and the city’s openness to exploring the possibilities of digital finance.

“It was not affiliated with any campaign activity,” Shapiro said. “The mayor had no knowledge of any political discussions or interactions that may have occurred during the event, which was attended by over 100 individuals from across the blockchain and tech sectors.”

Mamelak Altus, the City Hall spokesperson, said the mayor has been an ardent defender of DEI programs and directed POLITICO to several past interviews in which Adams defended diversity initiatives while pointing to the number of historic appointments to his administration, including an initial cabinet of racially diverse women.

“It shouldn't be DEI. It should be ELA,” Adams said during an April press briefing when asked how he would handle federal threats to DEI programs, referring to his own initials. “I'm a representative of what DEI means.”

Mamelak Altus also said the mayor has been bullish on virtual finance since the outset of his administration, when he accepted his first three paychecks in cryptocurrency. She noted that the mayor appeared in the background of Eric Lerner’s Vegas interview because all media were set up in the same part of the Sin City summit.

Another Adams booster in the crypto world, Brock Pierce, also attended the conference. As the Post reported, Pierce invited donors to the Adams campaign luncheon during the Vegas sojourn. City Hall has said the event was walled off from the rest of the mayor’s official activities and constituted a small portion of the trip.

In an on-camera interview also conducted with DeFiance Media, Pierce talks up the importance of Adams’ reelection to the future of digital finance.

“He’s not about to be the crypto-mayor. He is the crypto mayor of the United States of America,” Pierce says. “And it is mission critical to me — I believe New York City, the state and the nation, and therefore the world — that it stays that way and he stays the mayor of New York City.”

Pierce, who hosted a fundraiser for Adams in December and flew the mayor to Puerto Rico on his private jet in 2022, also suggested he was assisting Adams with logistics at the event when asked about some of his job titles — though the mayor’s office said he did not have any role and the mayor was staffed by his security detail.

“I’m kind of a man who does everything I can,” Pierce said. “But a couple titles: Chairman, DNA. Chairman, Bitcoin foundation. And today I’m on Mayor Eric Adams’ advance team.”