- Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has said he wants to add Bitcoin to the city’s balance sheet
- Suarez cited Tesla’s adoption of Bitcoin as “very helpful”
- The Miami mayor is working on a resolution to achieve the goal
The mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez, is taking steps to see a portion of the city’s balance sheet converted to bitcoin. The news, revealed by Suarez in a Twitter post yesterday, comes hot on the heels of Tesla announcing that it had bought $1.5 billion of bitcoin, an announcement that saw the Bitcoin price bounce 20%. Suarez said in the tweet that he will raise the issue in a city council meeting on Thursday where he hoped to “get the ball rolling”.
Miami Mayor Hoping to Turn City Into Tech Hotspot
Unlike many in his position who either don’t trust or don’t understand Bitcoin, Suarez has been a vocal supporter of it, going as far as uploading the Bitcoin whitepaper to the municipal servers at the end of last year. The Miami mayor, who has run the city since 2009, has invested billions of dollars in trying to rejuvenate it as a tech hub, so it is perhaps not surprising that he is a Bitcoin supporter.
Being pro-tech and even pro-Bitcoin is one thing, but actively trusting it to the extent where he is willing to spend public money on it is quite a step forward. Suarez first raised the possibility last month, and it seems that the move by Elon Musk to convert $1.5 billion worth of Tesla’s balance sheet to bitcoin has inspired the Miami mayor to follow suit:
Working on a resolution for our commission for this Thursday’s meeting to get the ball rolling…@elonmusk’s announcement was very helpful…now all we need is for @amazon to adopt and then 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀 https://t.co/2wnkYD9n58
— Mayor Francis Suarez (@FrancisSuarez) February 8, 2021
Road to Adoption Will Not be Smooth
Were Suarez to be successful in his plan it would be the first time that public funds have been used to buy Bitcoin in the U.S. and would represent a huge milestone in adoption of the cryptocurrency. The plan is by no means guaranteed to succeed however, and there will almost certainly be strong dissenting voices on Thursday to which the Miami mayor will have to have good answers.
