Crypto Crash Hits Miami Hardest
Last Updated on 6 November 2023 by CryptoTips.eu
In June 2021, Francis Suarez, the mayor of Miami, already tweeted that his city would become the Bitcoin capital of the world. In the spring of this year, he underlined that statement once again by placing a gold reproduction of the famous Wall Street bull in his city, this time all about Bitcoin and crypto.
FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried’s platform, pledged to move its headquarters from the Bahamas to Miami.
Miami Heat
To show how serious their intentions were, FTX signed a contract with the city to sponsor the stadium of the local NBA team, the Miami Heat, for the next 20 years and had the complex renamed as FTX arena. Price tag for the sponsorship: $135 million.
In February of this year, it seemed like everything Suarez hoped for would come true. Research firm Telstra Ventures released a report showing that Miami was growing spectacularly as a new tech hub. The city saw a 2,061 percent increase in blockchain investments in 2021. Miami trailed only San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles that year in terms of financial deals related to the technology, Telstra Ventures concluded.
Digital nomads
Eight months later and the picture is no longer so rosy. As 2022 draws to a close, it seems like everything Miami hoped for has gone completely wrong. FTX has been declared bankrupt and the city is trying to get out of the sponsorship contract via a lawsuit. The mayor’s political critics declare every day that his bet has gone wrong and are demanding his resignation. Even the ‘digital nomads’ (high earning tech workers that can WFH anywhere) that Miami tried to lure away from San Francisco with this new crypto boom, might want to move out again.
“A bunch of con men, selling imaginary coins and magic beans is not that interesting of a story. But the fact is the government, and its elected officials were complicit in it, and dragged the city in it.” @BillyCorben https://t.co/zBjytNtKTS
— Alfred Spellman (@AlfredSpellman) December 10, 2022
In Silicon Valley and San Francisco, however, those same digital nomads are no longer so welcome due to the many layoffs in the tech sector. 2023 will start badly for the Miami crypto promise, but don’t write off Suarez and his Bitcoin bet just yet.
