New Yorkers Unable to Trade Native NYCCoin Due to BitLicense Requirement

Despite being a digital coin created specifically for them, New Yorkers can’t trade the NYCCoin. According to the token developers, the asset was inspired by the city mayor, Eric Adams, who promised to make the city crypto-friendly. 

However, despite the huge promises held by the coin, the Bitlicense requirements in the city have made it impossible for residents to access the coin, Bloomberg reported.

Although New Yorkers can mine the Stacks protocol-based token, the BitLicense rule in the city makes it impossible for them to trade it. The rule which came into effect in 2015 makes it compulsory for any crypto exchange that’ll operate in the City to have the license.

BitLicense creating huge hurdle for adoption in New York

BitLicense is a business license for firms looking to carry out crypto-related activities in New York. Due to the stringent registration requirement, only a few crypto exchanges have been approved by the authorities to operate within the city.

Some of the biggest crypto exchanges in the United States, such as FTX, Crypto.com, Kraken, and Binance.us, do not have the right to operate in New York.

Interestingly, none of the licensed exchanges (like Coinbase) operating in New York has listed NYCCoins. This means that residents of the city are unable to buy or sell a token that was created specifically for them.

Just recently, the BitLicense rule came under criticism from billionaire investor Bill Ackman who called on the governor of New York and mayor of NYC to look into the regulations. And according to the token’s lead community developer, “BitLicense functions as an onerous obstacle that limits innovation.”

It should be noted that the NYCCoin isn’t the only city-themed coin within the crypto community. Miami also has an eponymous crypto asset for its city, and like New York, the city has a crypto-friendly mayor, Francis Suarez.

But unlike New York residents, Miami residents can trade the token affiliated to their city. Also, the NYCCoin has not been endorsed by the city or its mayor.

All of these impediments have made it impossible for New York residents to trade their beloved assets.

As of press time, NYCCoin currently has over 2 billion tokens in circulation, while there are 4 billion MiamiCoin tokens in circulation. The NYCCoin is currently trading for $0.0017 while MiamiCoin is exchanging hands for $0.0032.

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