Meme coin Floki Inu has blocked users in Hong Kong from accessing its Floki and TokenFi staking programs, after the local regulator flagged them as “suspicious investment products.”
In a blog post, the Floki Inu team announced that it had taken “practical measures” to block users in Hong Kong from joining its staking programs, as well as placing “prominent warnings” on the Floki and TokenFi staking websites that Hong Kong users are ineligible to participate in the programs.
The move comes after the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong (SFC) issued a warning on January 26th that the Floki and TokenFi staking programmes constituted “suspicious investment products,” citing their “ high annualised return targets of 30% to over 100%.”
The SFC noted that neither staking product had been authorized by the regulator, and added that Floki had been unable to demonstrate to its satisfaction how the staking programmes’ high annualized return targets could be achieved.
The Floki team responded that the high APY for its staking programs is due to allocating the majority of TokenFi’s token supply to token stakers, as the project has not raised VC funds or conducted a presale. The team added that due to “market forces” beyond its control, the TokenFi price had gone up “significantly” from its market cap at launch.
“We do not believe there is any confusion amongst users as to how the staking program works,” the Floki team said, adding that the staking programs for Floki and TokenFi are “completely decentralized.”
The news doesn’t appear to have negatively impacted on the tokens’ price; the Shiba Inu-themed meme coin is trading largely flat, up 1.7% on the day, while TokenFi’s TOKEN is up 5% on the day.
Edited by Stacy Elliott.