[News Brief] Apr 22, morning | Illinois signs bill imposing 0.2% tax on digital asset transactions

The U.S. state of Illinois has signed a bill imposing a 0.2% tax on digital asset transactions and services.

According to Odaily, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed the Digital Asset Tax Act. The law will levy a 0.2% tax on the value of digital asset transactions or services provided to customers in Illinois, and it will take effect on January 1, 2027.

The tax applies to crypto service providers such as exchanges, custodians, and brokers. These firms will be required to collect and remit the tax in a manner similar to sales tax.

Industry groups including the Crypto Council for Innovation, the Digital Chamber, and the Illinois Blockchain Association strongly opposed the bill, saying it could become one of the strictest digital asset tax regimes in the United States.

Critics argue that the new tax will increase costs for Illinois residents using digital assets and could encourage crypto companies, developers, and related innovation activity to relocate خارج the state.

The U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 3.50%–3.75%.

According to Odaily, the Fed has now held rates steady for four consecutive meetings, in line with market expectations.

Watcher.Guru reported that Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh has formally ended the Fed’s use of forward guidance.

Forward guidance is a policy tool in which a central bank signals its future path for interest rates and monetary policy in advance. Its removal could increase uncertainty over the future policy trajectory.

BTC fell below 64,000 USDT.

According to Odaily, OKX market data showed BTC trading at 63,968.2 USDT, down 2.72% over the past 24 hours.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) plans to file a lawsuit in response to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) approval of crypto perpetual futures.

According to CNBC, CME CEO Terry Duffy said the company would take legal action over the CFTC’s recent approval allowing Kalshi to offer Bitcoin perpetual futures. Duffy argued that perpetual futures are effectively swaps under the Dodd-Frank Act.

The CFTC approved Kalshi’s Bitcoin perpetual futures offering in late May, after which Kalshi expanded the offering to other cryptocurrencies. CME believes intensifying competition in the crypto derivatives market and disputes over regulatory interpretation are at the center of the lawsuit.

Coinbase’s CEO said a Bitcoin and crypto market structure/clarity bill will be brought to a full Senate vote and receive bipartisan support, according to @pete_rizzo_.

He said the bill is expected to be signed by President Trump soon. The legislation, which seeks to clarify the U.S. regulatory framework for crypto, is regarded as a major issue of interest for the industry.

According to Odaily, Miami-based crypto promoter Rodney Burton pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business in connection with the $1.8 billion HyperFund fraud case.

Burton admitted that he laundered investor funds through a corporate entity disguised as a consulting firm and personally profited by at least $7.85 million. HyperFund had promised investors daily returns of 0.5% to 1% based on profits from a large-scale crypto mining business, but investigators found that no such mining operation actually existed.

Burton was arrested in January 2024 at Miami International Airport while holding a one-way ticket to the United Arab Emirates and has remained in custody since then. His guilty plea relates to the conspiracy charge, which carries a maximum sentence of five years. Sentencing is scheduled for July 23.

Crypto exchange Bybit has been placed on the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Investor Alert List, according to PANews citing Cointelegraph.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore places firms on the list when consumers may mistakenly believe they are licensed by or regulated by the authority. Bybit Fintech Limited and Bybit were included on the list, though the specific reason was not disclosed.

Public information indicates that Bybit is neither licensed by nor regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Although Bybit was founded by Singaporean entrepreneur Ben Zhou, its official website lists Singapore as a restricted jurisdiction.

SlowMist said Little Boy Plus was exploited, resulting in losses of about 377,642 USDT.

According to SlowMist’s monitoring, the attack stemmed from a vulnerability in the LBPHashrate contract’s _update function. The function could be triggered through a zero-value transferFrom call, allowing the attacker to bypass OpenZeppelin permission checks.

The attacker then executed _harvest without authorization and minted LBP tokens to the PancakePair address through LBP.mintReward. They subsequently exploited the imbalance between the pool balance and reserves to drain USDT through a PancakePair swap, according to the investigation.

Fidelity Investments has launched the Fidelity Reserves Digital Fund, a money market fund aimed at stablecoin issuers and institutional investors, PANews reported citing CoinDesk.

The fund is designed for stablecoin reserve management and invests in U.S. Treasuries with maturities of 93 days or less, cash, overnight repurchase agreements backed by Treasuries, and eligible government money market funds.

State Street had previously launched a similar product. The move highlights intensifying competition among traditional financial institutions in the stablecoin reserve market.