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Dog-themed meme coin floki inu soared in price following a community proposal that would burn $55 million worth of its tokens.

Floki Inu was trading up 14% to $0.000012 at 6:06 a.m. EST, according to TradingView data. The token price was initially buoyed by the community proposal, which is currently being voted on. 

FLOKIUSDT chart by TradingView

The governance proposal would see 4.97 trillion floki tokens burnt — worth around $55 million. The Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) is also looking to reduce its transaction tax as part of a broader DeFi revamp. 

DAOs are decentralized communities that power crypto and blockchain projects.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Decentralized exchanges MinSwap and MuesliSwap, both based on the Cardano blockchain, have announced their support for the upcoming Djed stablecoin and its accompanying governance token, Shen. The stablecoin, which is planned to go live on the Cardano network next week, will be offered as part of the liquidity pools on these exchanges.

MinSwap, the largest decentralized exchange on Cardano, revealed that Djed and Shen will be paired against the ADA cryptocurrency in a liquidity pool. With over $30 million in liquid tokens locked on the exchange, this presents a significant opportunity for Djed to gain traction in the Cardano ecosystem.

MuesliSwap, another decentralized exchange on Cardano, with roughly $6.6 million in value locked, also announced its support for the upcoming stablecoin.

Djed has been developed by crypto firm Coti, in collaboration with Cardano’s lead developer Input Output. It is designed to be the first crypto-backed stablecoin in the Cardano ecosystem, and has been in development for over a year.

Once launched, Cardano users will be able to take ADA, the native cryptocurrency of the Cardano network, and use it as collateral to mint Djed. The stablecoin will be overcollateralized, meaning that it is backed by excess collateral in the form of cryptocurrency held in a reserve. This is a similar design used by dai, the most popular decentralized stablecoin in the Ethereum ecosystem. Each Djed will require more than 400% in collateral value to be minted.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Porsche set a precedent in NFT land with the inclusion of a 14-day return period included in the terms of its debut collection. 

Despite the fact that consumer laws have been in play for EU and UK customers since before NFTs were created, the idea that you could return an NFT for the full amount you paid, even if the floor price has gone to zero, has set Twitter abuzz. 

The laws, known as “distance selling regulations,” include digital goods and downloads, including books and in-game purchases.

Public mint is live!​
→ https://t.co/gDi9408OjH pic.twitter.com/WhQIoi9pfh

— PORSCHΞ (@eth_porsche) January 23, 2023

Like much of crypto, consumer rights for NFT buyers and sellers is a gray area. If it is enforceable, this legal technicality may potentially prevent projects from pulling the rug from under unsuspecting jpeg buyers. 

It has been a rocky ride for Porsche’s web3 team this week, as its initial NFT drop of model 911 vehicle-inspired tokens fell short of selling out. The digital assets failed to reach classic status, as the initial mint price of 0.911 ETH (or about $1,430 at the time of writing) and lack of a clear roadmap put many off. 

The fast-car designers had partnered with Hamburg-based designer and 3D artist Patrick Vogel to create a customizable image of Porsche’s 911 model.

Following a lackluster mint, the German automobile maker decided to cut the supply of NFTs, after intending to mint 7,500.

There are now only 2,363 items in circulation, and a floor price of 1.9 ETH.

It also laid out its roadmap on Wednesday, which said it would give collectors access to events and experiences in the coming months. 

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Solana DeFi yield platform Friktion is shutting down its front end website, with customers urged to withdraw their assets, the company stated on Friday. This means the front end website will no longer provide the same services, but the underlying protocol remains accessible on the blockchain.

The platform has taken the first step in this process, moving all volts into withdrawal-only mode. Volts are Friktion’s structured product for DeFi investments. Volt owners earn a share of the revenue from investment pools. The platform is also no longer accepting deposits from users.

The Solana DeFi platform said its decision to shut down was a difficult one but noted it had come up against numerous challenges. Friktion listed the FTX and Terra ecosystem collapses, as well as the several Solana outages as some of the challenges faced during its run.

Friktion’s total value locked peaked at $164 million in April last year, according to DeFiLlama. This value has dropped to $5 million, a decline of about 97%. The platform traded $3 billion and had over 20,000 user wallets during its run. Friktion even launched under-collateralized lending for institutional clients in November last year.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Episode 3 of Season 5 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Nabil Manji, Worldpay head of crypto and web3 .

Listen below, and subscribe to The Scoop on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. Email feedback and revision requests can be sent to podcast@theblockcrypto.com.

Nabil Manji, Worldpay’s head of crypto and web3, describes his firm as “one of the largest companies that most people have never heard of,” since Worldpay plays a relatively behind-the-scenes role facilitating the “plumbing” of different aspects of the global financial system.

In this episode of The Scoop, Manji discusses how Worldpay is positioning itself to expand its digital asset infrastructure and the ways that traditional financial institutions have adjusted their digital asset strategies in the wake of last year’s crypto meltdown. 

According to Manji, many firms from traditional finance are continuing to build out infrastructure for digital assets while also reducing speculative exposure to the asset class:

“If you look at some of the larger financial services technology providers, and in some cases a lot of the larger banks, they’re continuing to invest on that technology adoption side even while simultaneously pulling back on the more speculative investment side.”

Although many institutions are still following through on plans to provide services for digital assets, Manji also says the problems in the industry exposed over the past year need to be addressed:

“The challenges presented over the past nine months and some of the problems that those of uncovered are very material, and until some or all of those are meaningfully addressed, I do think it’s going to delay or postpone the pace at which institutions and enterprises in financial services might have leveraged digital assets or the underlying technology.”

During this episode, Chaparro and Manji also discuss:

• How CBDC’s could be beneficial.
• The tokenization of real-world assets.
• The future of stablecoins.

This episode is brought to you by our sponsors Circle, Railgun, Flare Network, NordVPN

About Circle
Circle is a global financial technology company helping money move at internet speed. Our mission is to raise global economic prosperity through the frictionless exchange of value. Visit Circle.com to learn more.

About Railgun
RAILGUN is a private DeFi solution on Ethereum, BSC, Arbitrum, and Polygon. Shield any ERC-20 token and any NFT into a Private Balance and let RAILGUN’s Zero-Knowledge cryptography encrypt your address, balance, and transaction history. You can also bring privacy to your project with RAILGUN SDK and be sure to check out RAILGUN with partner project Railway Wallet, also available on iOS and Android. Visit Railgun.org to find out more.

About Flare
Flare is an EVM-based Layer 1 blockchain designed to allow developers to build applications that can use data from other blockchains and the internet. By providing decentralized access to a wide variety of high integrity data from other blockchains and the internet, Flare enables new use cases and monetisation models. Build better and connect everything at Flare.Network

About NordVPN
NordVPN is essential for keeping crypto transactions secure, hiding your IP address and protecting your devices from hackers and data theft. Get premium cyber-security on up to 6 devices for the price of a cup of coffee a month. Get your exclusive NordVPN Deal and try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee: Visit https://nordvpn.com/thescoop

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon are raising concerns over a government audit-overseer’s credibility following the fallout from failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX. 

Warren and Wyden criticized the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, saying it must act to “maintain its rigorous standards for audit firms.”

Questionable accounting practices in the crypto industry raise concerns and underscore the need for the PCAOB to act to ensure accountability, the lawmakers said in a letter sent to the accounting watchdog on Thursday. 

Warren and Wyden asked the PCAOB several questions, including whether it would commit to using its authority to evaluate and publicly report on auditors that provided services for any crypto company acting as a broker-dealer, even if the firm was not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The senators want a response from the PCAOB by Feb. 8.  

Warren and Wyden said some large accounting firms involved with FTX failed to find abnormalities at the exchange, such as the lack of record keeping and failure of corporate controls. The lawmakers also criticized proof-of-reserves examinations done by crypto firms and said they fall short — in part because they are not overseen by the PCAOB.  

The PCAOB is tasked with overseeing the audits of public companies, as well as brokers and dealers registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  

“When PCAOB-registered auditors perform sham audits – even for firms that may lay outside of the PCAOB’s jurisdiction – they tarnish the credibility of the PCAOB and undermine confidence in the PCAOB-registered auditors that investors and the public rely on when making investment decisions,” the lawmakers wrote.  

The PCAOB did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  

Disclaimer: Beginning in 2021, Michael McCaffrey, the former CEO and majority owner of The Block, took a series of loans from founder and former FTX and Alameda CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. McCaffrey resigned from the company in December 2022 after failing to disclose those transactions.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Amazon is planning a new initiative using non-fungible tokens that could be launched in the spring, Blockworks reported, citing four sources familiar with the plans.  

The tech giant has over a dozen partners lined up for the project, which is focusing on gaming, Blockworks said. One example could involve a push to get Amazon customers to play crypto games and claim free NFTs.

The effort is still being developed, and it could launch in April, according to the report. Two sources told Blockworks that the platform would be run out of Amazon rather than AWS, or Amazon Web Services, a subsidiary of Amazon.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Block.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Bitcoin mining stocks tracked by The Block were mostly higher on Thursday, with 13 gaining and 5 declining.

Bitcoin rose 0.9% to $23,131 by market close.

Here is a look at how the individual miners performed today:

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Brevan Howard Digital added to its senior leadership ranks, hiring former Dragonfly general partner Kevin Hu to focus on investing in listed digital asses. 

Hu will be based in the firm’s new Abu Dhabi office and report directly to BH Digital Chief Executive Gautam Sharma.

Hu was previously a general partner and head of liquid strategies at crypto venture fund Dragonfly. Before Dragonfly, he worked at BlackRock’s alternative investment group and led its research effort into digital assets in 2016.

“As we continue to strengthen our position as a leading institutional digital assets investment platform, we are thrilled to have Kevin join our expanding team,” Gautam Sharma, CEO of BH Digital, said in a statement.  

Hu is the latest addition to BH Digital’s team. The firm hired Robert Bogucki as a senior portfolio manager and Lewis Tuff as chief technology officer, according to the release.  

Brevan Howard manages over $30 billion in assets for institutional investors, such as sovereign wealth funds and corporate and public pension plans.  

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has rejected a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund proposed by ARK Investment Management and 21Shares.  

The decision marks the second time ARK and 21Shares have attempted to get the Cboe BZX Exchange off the ground, only to be denied by the commission. The SEC rejected the initial proposal from the companies to establish a bitcoin ETF last April. 

“The commission concludes that BZX has not met its burden under the Exchange Act,” the SEC said in a statement that echoed prior rulings.

Thus far, the SEC has yet to approve any proposal for a bitcoin ETF, for years citing opacity in the underlying bitcoin market and concerns over possible price manipulation. Grayscale, the subsidiary of the Digital Currency Group that manages the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust investment fund, sued the SEC last year over its lack of approval of its own spot ETF application. The suit remains ongoing. 

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.