Miami mayor to become the first politician to receive paycheck in BTC

Last November 2, Miami city’s Mayor Francis Suarez showed interest in receiving his salary in Bitcoin (BTC) through a Twitter post. Suarez quoted the tweet from known Bitcoin investor Anthony Pompliano asking about who would be the first American politician to accept a salary in BTC. The mayor then said that the problem is solved as he will be taking his paycheck ‘100% in Bitcoin’. He also tagged the Director of Innovation and Tech of Miami, Mike Sarasti, to help make this all possible.

Apart from showing his interest in receiving a paycheck in BTC, Suarez also pointed out in a separate tweet last November 3 that he wanted to use crypto apps like Bitwage or Strike for direct fund transfers. He mentioned that he’d rather the local government refrain from going through the effort of converting his fiat paycheck into cryptocurrency.

Suarez’s interest in receiving BTC for his paycheck came in the morning of Election Day in the United States. Although the positions for the federal office is not up for voting until the 2022 midterms, Suarez is known as the frontrunner against six nonpartisan candidates.

According to records from the local government of Miami published by their Ethics Commission in 2018, Miami’s mayor annual salary reached up to $97,000 in the years 2016 to 2017. This shows that Mayor Suarez will receive a monthly paycheck of more than $8,000 or 0.13 BTC with a market price of $63,404 if the currency change occurs.

Among other United States (US) officials, Mayor Suarez has been one of the most vocal about his interest in cryptocurrencies since he was elected in 2017. According to crypto news site Cointelegraph, he is known to own both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). 

In his interview with the American business magazine Forbes last February 2, he pointed out his plans with BTC and cryptocurrency in general. He said that he wanted to give his employees the ‘ability to take a percentage of their salary in Bitcoin and crypto’. This also includes allowing residents to make payments for their taxes and other similar fees using crypto. Apart from this, he aims to include BTC as part of Miami’s investment portfolio.

Aside from what was mentioned previously, Suarez voiced out his vision of turning Miami into a crypto hub. He said that they are now looking into the policies created by crypto-friendly areas like Wyoming and New York in the same interview with Forbes Magazine.

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