HOKK Finance, one of the original meme-tokens that peaked at a USD 800M market cap in May 2021, has appointed Travelocity co-founder Lawrence Hutson as chief technology officer.
As CTO, Lawrence will be instrumental in developing HOKK Finance’s decentralized finance ecosystem. He’ll also support HOKK Finance’s global expansion and product development plans as it aims to compete with legacy banking.
Before joining HOKK Finance, Lawrence worked as a computer scientist and economist across areas such as blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, DeFi, smart contracts, decentralized applications, tokenomics and the metaverse. He also co-founded and served as CTO for Travelocity, the world’s first travel website, before Expedia acquired it for USD 280m in 2015.
He commented: “I became interested in HOKK Finance since serving the project as an advisor. After working on numerous DeFi crypto projects as a CTO and Tokenomist, the utility of a DeFi token is near and dear to my heart along with frictionless crypto payment systems.
“For a meme token to make a transition to a DeFi player is simply genius if you consider how many DeFi platforms struggle to gain a strong community. By leveraging its brand and scaling its products to consumers globally, HOKK is uniquely positioned to grow exponentially. There are many unique features that do not currently exist together in the crypto space that come together to make HOKK what it is. This is why I am super excited to join HOKK as its CTO.”
Lawrence joins HOKK Finance at a pivotal moment for the company, with it recently launching an Ethereum aggregator and a range of yield-earning NFTs. Mark Basa, global brand and business manager at HOKK Finance, believes that appointing Lawrence as CTO is what the brand needs to successfully position itself as more than just another meme token and show the world that its cryptocurrency and range of products can have a real-world utility.
He said: ‘’We’ve now built all the infrastructure to scale the company. Our team is growing, our products are getting more features, and we’re just building and building away every single day – no matter what the market is doing.
“With Lawrence taking this c-suite position, we have an exceptionally experienced leader who has built and sold quite a famous company but also someone who has the experience we need to compete in one of the fastest-growing industries on the planet. Lawrence could help us become a market leader in a short amount of time.’’
About HOKK Finance
HOKK Finance builds decentralized financial products that challenge modern banking, empowering people to do more with their crypto. Founded in 2021, it was one of the original meme-tokens and is transforming itself into a DeFi ecosystem. HOKK Finance is a multi-chain token available on ETH, BSC, HECO, with staking, rewards, and incredible products like an Ethereum aggregator and yield-earning NFTs.
HOKK Finance’s aim is to build products people can use in everyday life to grow their wealth, unlocking crypto in ways never previously imagined. The company is leveraging the power of 46 international team members and a highly engaged global community to spread awareness of its native token, $HOKK, and its future vision of becoming a crypto unicorn.
About Lawrence Hutson
Lawrence Hutson is a computer scientist and economist with a wealth of expertise in blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, DeFi, smart contracts, decentralized applications, token gating, tokenomics and the metaverse. Lawrence co-founded and served as CTO for Travelocity, the world’s first travel website (and largest Ecommerce site at the time) that was acquired by Expedia for USD 280m in 2015. He was a contractor to GTE (now Verizon), building the world’s first global Internet based on TCP/IP. Lawrence founded Nexgen Travel Distribution in Munich in 2005, leading the company through seed, Series A, and Series B funding rounds. In 2018 he began working exclusively with blockchain and decentralization in the Web 3.0 world, and has served as CTO, architect, consultant, advisor, investor and designer to numerous successful blockchain projects. Lawrence was appointed CTO for: AdLunam, the industry’s first NFT-integrated Proof-of-Attention seed crowdfunding and IDO launchpad on Polygon; Aegis Studio, a blockchain development studio with a diverse range of projects in NFTs, tokenomics, metaverse platforms, dApps, decentralized gaming, and blockchain privacy solutions; Minterest, a DeFi cross-chain protocol on Polkadot, where he oversaw their 6.5 million USD funding round in Dubai, and their creation of the first decentralized liquidation system in DeFi money markets; Master Ventures, a blockchain venture capital company with over 50 companies in portfolio, including Coinbase, Kraken, Ripple, and Polkadex; and Crypto Exchange Alliance, a next-generation liquidity ecosystem with the aim of democratizing crypto exchanges everywhere. In addition to all this, Lawrence designed the first AMM DEX for security tokens with multiple whitelists per token in liquidity pools; was Chairman and Advisor to CRM Adapt, the world’s first decentralized CRM; and was appointed Strategic Advisor to DigiShares, a real estate tokenization platform. Lawrence holds a BBA in Economics, a MS in Computer Science, and has a PhD tenure-track position in Computer Science with an emphasis in AI, ML, and cryptography.
