Crypto banks just caught a break

Plus, 🛠️ KiloEx offers comp after $7M hack, 🍽️ Is Trump having Justin Sun for dinner?, and more!

Author

Juan Aranovich
April 25, 2025

Hi! In today’s edition:

  • 🔥 The Fed’s bonfire of bank rules

  • 💰 KiloEx: Payback time after $7M hack

  • 🍽️ Did Justin Sun sign up for Trump dinner top table?

ADD TO CALENDAR! 📅 ➡️ Bits + Bips is now live every Monday when the markets close. Watch on YouTube or X.

The Financial Freedom Report explores the role currency and banking play in the civil liberties and human rights struggles of those living under authoritarian regimes and how Bitcoin is used to push back.

By Tikta

The board of the U.S. Federal Reserve withdrew earlier supervisory guidance for banks on crypto asset and dollar token activities on Thursday, a reversal that effectively ends the approach known as “Operation Choke Point 2.0,” an alleged Biden-era plan to restrict banks’ ability to serve crypto clients.

Specifically, the Fed’s board rescinded a 2022 supervisory letter that required state member banks to provide advance notice to it before engaging in crypto activities. 

It also revoked a 2023 notice that required banks to obtain “regulatory non-objection” before engaging in stablecoin or dollar token activities.

And it withdrew two joint statements from 2023, issued with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, that outline risks and urge caution on crypto activities.

Crypto-related operations by banks will now be monitored through the Fed’s normal supervisory process, rather than under special or separate procedures.

With the withdrawal of the federal guidance, the banking industry is looking to Congress for new legislation to more clearly define the regulatory framework for digital assets. 

A draft crypto market structure bill could be released this week. 

Decentralized exchange KiloEx on Thursday shared a compensation plan for users affected by a $7 million hack earlier this month that exploited a vulnerability in the platform’s price oracle system.

Traders with open positions will be fully compensated for increased losses or reduced profits on open positions during the platform’s suspension. 

Hybrid vault stakers will have their principal and earnings preserved as KiloEx reinjected the stolen funds into the vault. Those users can also earn an additional 10% APY on top of base yield if they choose to participate in a “special yield boost campaign” between April 24 and May 24.

Meanwhile, KiloEx plans to compensate its VIP users based on a real-time snapshot taken at the time of the hack, giving them an automatic “+1 level” upgrade and 30-day protection of their VIP status.

A crypto wallet labeled as an HTX cold wallet and registered under the username "Sun" has signed up for U.S. President Donald Trump's upcoming gala dinner for the biggest and most sustained holders of his official memecoin, TRUMP.

“HTX holds $14.6M TRUMP in this wallet, making it the largest wallet registered for the dinner,” said Arkham Intelligence, the onchain analytics firm that first flagged the wallet on X. 

The username "Sun" is widely believed to refer to Justin Sun, the founder of Tron and an advisor to the HTX crypto exchange — formerly named Huobi — although it is technically possible for anyone with access to the wallet to register under the username.

Direct attribution to Sun remains unconfirmed, but if the controversial crypto entrepreneur has signed up, it wouldn’t be the first time he had paid millions of dollars for dinner with an influential person. In 2019, Sun placed a winning $4.5 million bid to dine with Berkshire Hathaway chief and investment guru Warren Buffett.

  • 📜 South Korea’s right-wing People Power Party on Friday announced plans to introduce a bill promoting digital assets, citing the role of what it called “excessively regulation-focused policy” in driving away capital and framing crypto as a 21st century store of value.

  • 🕵️ North Korea’s Lazarus Group created two fake U.S. companies and one offshore entity to distribute malware targeting crypto developers through fake job interviews, according to new research by cyber-threat analysis platform Silent Push.

  • 📄 Former pro basketballer Shaquille O’Neal this week settled a class action over FTX promotions after years of attempts to evade being served with the legal action and a dramatic serving incident during an NBA playoff game, with terms remaining confidential, pending court approval.

  • 🤝 El Salvador’s crypto watchdog this week met with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to propose a joint regulatory sandbox enabling real-world U.S. crypto experiments using El Salvador’s flexible framework as a model for future cross-border collaboration.

  • 🚀 Investment manager Ark Invest increased its 2030 bitcoin bull-case price projection from $1.5 million to $2.4 million, using an experimental model that discounts illiquid supply and assumes strong institutional adoption.

  • 💻 Ethereum staking platform Ether.fi is launching a non-custodial DeFi banking platform in the U.S. aimed at replacing neobanks by integrating services such as staking and liquidity into a seamless crypto-native user experience.

  • 📊 Trading infrastructure startup Theo raised $20 million from backers including Hack VC and Anthos to help retail users access advanced trading strategies through vaults that interact with both centralized and decentralized exchanges.

  • 🌐 Prague-based crypto venture firm RockawayX closed a $125 million fund with up to 75% earmarked for Solana-based startups, extending its engineering-led, infrastructure-focused investment strategy in the blockchain space.

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