Nike launches 'dot Swoosh' - a virtual sneaker store and trading platform

Nike is launching 'dot Swoosh' (.Swoosh,) - a new Web3 platform and ecosystem that lives at the domain Swoosh.nike.

"It will be a place where our community can come in and co-create that future with us," says Ron Faris, GM of Nike Virtual Studios.

What? Dot Swoosh will be the virtual footwear, apparel, accessories store, and community. The digital products will include a variety of tie-ins, with some unlocking access to physical items.

• Users can buy & trade virtual Nike goods

• Co-create products

• Attend IRL events with token-gated virtual creations

• Claim your own .swoosh domain

When? Nike purchased the dotswoosh.eth domain in May for 19.72 ETH. This Friday, the platform will go live, and people can register now and gain access via an access code. In January, the first digital collection will be released.

Why? To onboard masses to Web3! Nike hopes to attract Web3 enthusiasts among Nike customers and .Swoosh is intended to appeal to traditional brand fans who are less familiar with Web3 rather than Web3 natives and early adopters. Nike believes that a significant amount of metaverse education is required before it begins to drop virtual goods regularly.

Where? In the coming months, Nike Virtual Studios will hold events in six cities — Atlanta, Los Angeles, Charlotte, Tallahassee, Louisville, and New York — to distribute access codes, introduce the product category to consumers and, most importantly, onboard community. Faris describes these cities as "not obvious tech capitals" but rather places that may not always have early access to new innovations.

Nike was a pioneer in the metaverse and web3 adoption among brands. Last year, it began trademarking virtual goods, launched its own Roblox virtual world, and acquired virtual sneaker creator RTFKT. And Nike has already generated at least $185.3 million in revenue from Web3 products.

PowerTrade to offer custody services to institutional clients

PowerTrade, a cryptocurrency exchange specialising in derivatives, has joined up with custody provider Copper, located in London, to provide custodial and settlement services for its institutional clients.

Customers can reduce counterparty risk by using PowerTrade's ClearLoop technology to trade on the exchange while keeping assets off-exchange in independent custody.

"Copper's ClearLoop brings institutional-grade clearing and settlement to PowerTrade in line with TradFi standards," said Mario Gomez Lozada, founder and CEO of PowerTrade

PowerTrade said it would use an RFQ (request for quote) methodology for the options market to better serve institutional investors by adopting a common practice in traditional finance.

US government officials order Paxos to freeze $19M in crypto linked to FTX

U.S. federal authorities had ordered cryptocurrency maker Paxos to freeze $19 million in bitcoin linked to the insolvent FTX exchange.

As a result of the request, Paxos declared that it had frozen 11,184.38 PAXG tokens that had previously been on the FTX.com platform but had subsequently been transferred to unidentified wallet addresses over 24 hours.

The decision was made after the U.S. Justice Department opened an inquiry into Sam Bankman-crypto Fried's empire's abrupt collapse last week.

"Earlier today, Paxos received direction from U.S. federal law enforcement to freeze Paxos-issued assets associated with four Ethereum addresses," Paxos said in its statement on Saturday.