The US Senate has confirmed US President Donald Trump pick Paul Atkins as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission in a 51-45 vote, with lawmakers largely voting along party lines.

His appointment comes several months after Trump named Atkins to lead the commission late last year.

Atkins previously served as an SEC commissioner between 2002 and 2008.

He will take over from Mark Uyeda, who has served as the SEC’s acting chair since Jan. 20.

”We welcome Paul Atkins as the next Chairman of the SEC. A veteran of our Commission, we look forward to him joining with us, along with our dedicated staff, to fulfill our mission on behalf of the investing public,” Uyeda and Commissioners Hester Peirce and Caroline Crenshaw wrote in an April 9 statement.

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.

Digital asset manager 21Shares has filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a spot Dogecoin exchange-traded fund, following similar filings from rivals Bitwise and Grayscale.

The 21Shares Dogecoin ETF would seek to track the price of the memecoin Dogecoin (DOGE), according to the firm’s April 9 Form S-1 registration statement. The Dogecoin Foundation’s corporate arm, House of Doge, plans to assist 21Shares with marketing the fund.

21Shares said Coinbase Custody would be the proposed custodian of its Dogecoin ETF but did not specify a fee, ticker or what stock exchange it would list on.

Source: James Seyffart

21Shares must also file a 19b-4 filing with the SEC to kickstart the regulator’s approval process for the fund. 

DOGE currently has a $24.2 billion market cap and is the eighth-largest cryptocurrency by value. It was created in 2013 as a joke and is a fork of Lucky Coin, which itself is a fork of Bitcoin.

21Shares’ proposed Dogecoin ETF is the company’s latest effort to expand its spot crypto ETF offerings, which currently includes only a spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) fund.

The issuer also filed with the SEC in February to launch a spot Polkadot (DOT) ETF and last year, it filed to create a spot XRP (XRP) ETF.

Related: Dogecoin millionaires are buying dips as DOGE price eyes 30% rally

The recent surge in crypto ETF filings reflects a “spaghetti cannon approach” from issuers testing which products the new SEC leadership might approve, Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart said in February.

“Issuers will try to launch many many different things and see what sticks,” Seyffart said.

Seyffart and fellow Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said in February that there is a 75% chance that the SEC will approve a spot Dogecoin ETF this year, while the betting platform Polymarket currently gives approval odds of 64%.

21Shares and House of Doge partner for DOGE funds in Switzerland

21Shares also said on April 9 that it partnered with House of Doge to launch a fully backed Dogecoin exchange-traded product on Switzerland’s SIX Swiss Exchange.

The 21Shares Dogecoin product will trade under the ticker “DOGE” with a 2.5% fee.

21Shares president Duncan Moir said that Dogecoin “has become more than a cryptocurrency: it represents a cultural and financial movement that continues to drive mainstream adoption, and DOGE offers investors a regulated avenue to be part of this exciting project.”

Magazine: Memecoin degeneracy is funding groundbreaking anti-aging research

Aave’s tokenholders approved a governance proposal to start buying back the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol’s governance token, AAVE, as part of a broader tokenomics overhaul, Aave said on April 9. 

The proposal — which was approved by more than 99% of AAVE tokenholders — permits the protocol to purchase $4 million in AAVE (AAVE) tokens, enough for one month of buybacks. 

The move is a “first step” toward a broader plan to repurchase $1 million AAVE tokens weekly for six months. It is also the latest instance of DeFi protocols implementing buyback mechanisms in response to tokenholder demands.

“The goal is to sustainably increase AAVE acquisition from the open market and distribute it to the Ecosystem Reserve,” the proposal said. 

The AAVE token’s price rallied more than 13% on April 9, bringing the protocol’s market capitalization to more than $2.1 billion, according to data from CoinGecko.

The buyback proposal passed with overwhelming support. Source: Aave

Related: Aave proposal to peg Ethena’s USDe to USDT sparks community pushback

Buybacks gain popularity

In March, the Aave Chan Initiative (ACI), a governance advisory group, proposed a tokenomics revamp that would include new revenue allocations for AAVE tokenholders, enhanced safety features for users, and the creation of an “Aave Finance Committee.”

Aave is Web3’s most popular DeFi protocol, with total value locked surpassing $17.5 billion as of April 9, according to DefiLlama. 

It is also among DeFi’s biggest fee generators, with an estimated annualized fee income of $350 million, the data shows. 

Aave is DeFi’s most popular protocol by TVL. Source: DeFILlama

DeFi protocols are under increasing pressure to provide tokenholders with a share of protocol revenues — partly because US President Donald Trump has fostered a friendlier regulatory environment for DeFi protocols in the United States.

Projects including Ethena, Ether.fi and Maple are piloting value-accrual mechanisms for their native tokens.

In January, Maple Finance’s community floated buying back native SYRUP tokens and distributing them as rewards to stakers.

In December, Ether.fi, a liquid restaking token issuer, tipped plans to direct 5% of protocol revenues toward buying back native ETHFI tokens. 

Similarly, Ethena, a yield-bearing stablecoin issuer, agreed to share some of its approximately $200 million in protocol revenues with tokenholders in November.

Magazine: DeFi will rise again after memecoins die down: Sasha Ivanov, X Hall of Flame