It's the Brian Ler Show on WNYC.

I'm Bridget Bergen, filling in for Brian today.

In retrospect, maybe this wasn't the most unpredictable career pivot.

But former New York City mayor Eric Adams is now a cryptocurrency entrepreneur.

He's helped launch a new crypto token, one he claimed would somehow fight anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism.

Unfortunately for Adams, this new token collapsed almost immediately, prompting scam accusations

and scrutiny of both the project and the man behind it.

So what exactly happened here?

Well, we're going to ask Leo Schwartz, senior writer at Fortune, who's been reporting

this story, Leo, welcome to WNYC. I can't wait to talk

about this. Thanks so much for having me. Listeners, we want to hear from you too. Have you followed

Eric Adams' career since he left office or paid attention to his interest in crypto? What was your

reaction when you heard about this new token? And have you

bought any crypto tokens yourself? What's your experience in this market? Is this at Rug Pull,

as I think they were calling it? Something that you saw coming when you saw how this was rolled out.

The number 212-433-96-6-9-2. You can call or text that number. We are talking

Mayor Adams in his new cryptocurrency. Leo, I think when some people hear crypto token, their

eyes glaze over. Tell us exactly what a crypto token is. So a crypto token can be

something popular like Bitcoin, which was the first major cryptocurrency. It can also be this class of

cryptocurrencies called meme coins, which are often based around a joke. There's a famous one called

Dogecoin, which is based on a famous dog.

And then, of course, there's something like the New York City token, which maybe purports to have some underlying utility, like raising money to combat anti-Semitism.

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