Mayor of Miami Continues to Receive Bitcoin Paychecks, Claims His Salary ‘Is Actually Rising’ Despite Crypto Winter

Despite Bitcoin’s (BTC) dramatic decline from its all-time highs, Mayor Francisco Suarez of Miami claims he continues to get paid in Bitcoin (BTC).

In a recent interview with CNBC, Suarez describes his BTC paycheck as “a excellent investment.”

“You must realise that I get paid every two weeks. So it’s not like I purchased it all at [$60,000] and it’s now worth [$20,000]; nevertheless, people often assume that you’re purchasing it every two weeks or in the swings, so my income has really increased since I began accepting Bitcoin as payment for my job. Therefore, it was a wise investment. Not that I am profiting from it.”

In late 2021, the mayor of Miami began collecting Bitcoin salaries for the first time.

In his most recent interview with CNBC, Suarez was also challenged about his choice earlier this year to join the US branch of the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX. A month and a half before it collapsed, FTX.US announced in September that it was shifting its headquarters from Chicago to Miami.

The mayor of Miami wishes FTX had been more accountable with their consumers’ funds. He believes that a portion of the blame lies with governments for failing to regulate crypto businesses “properly in a manner that would place limits on what they might do with consumer funds.”

“Well, I believe every investor in FTX wishes they had more insight into what transpired behind the scenes.” I believe that some of the best investors in the world, who presumably conducted significant due diligence and had more advanced due diligence tools than we have, were deceived. In the lack of this information, it is exceedingly difficult to recognise whether someone is engaging in fraudulent behaviour.

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