[News Brief] Apr 22, morning | President Trump Signs Executive Order to Integrate Digital Assets and Innovative Technologies

President Trump Signs Executive Order to Integrate Digital Assets and Innovative Technologies into Existing Financial Services and Payment Systems

According to PANews, citing CoinDesk, President Trump signed an executive order to integrate digital assets and innovative technologies into existing financial services and payment systems.

The executive order instructs the heads of financial regulatory agencies to review existing regulations within three months and identify rules that excessively hinder cooperation between fintech companies and federal regulators. Agencies are required to take measures to promote innovation within six months.

The review includes whether the Federal Reserve can allow nonbank financial companies and non-deposit-insured depository institutions access to payment accounts and services, and whether the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks can provide payment accounts independently of the Board.

This move is drawing attention as it aligns with efforts to expand access to payment networks for crypto-related financial institutions such as Wyoming special purpose depository institutions.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs See Net Outflow of $331 Million in One Day

Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a total net outflow of $331 million on the 19th, U.S. Eastern Time, according to Odaily citing SoSoValue data.

The largest net outflow came from BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF, IBIT. IBIT posted a daily net outflow of $326 million, while its cumulative net inflow stands at $6.5007 billion.

Valkyrie ETF BRRR recorded a net outflow of $3.7915 million. Its cumulative net inflow is $318 million.

The total net assets of spot Bitcoin ETFs were recorded at $100.286 billion, representing 6.5% of Bitcoin's total market capitalization. Cumulative net inflows stood at $57.36 billion.

Verus-Ethereum Cross-Chain Bridge Suffers Attack Exceeding $11 Million

A cross-chain bridge connecting Verus and Ethereum was attacked for more than $11 million, according to Wu Blockchain.

Blockaid analyzed that the issue stemmed from a failure to verify whether the source chain parameters matched the settlement data on the Ethereum side. It said the exploit was similar to past bridge hacks such as Wormhole and Nomad.

After the attack, some Verus block-producing nodes went offline, temporarily halting block production.

Trump Administration's Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Announcement Expected Within Weeks

According to Odaily, Patrick Witt, digital asset adviser to President Trump, said an announcement regarding the U.S. Bitcoin strategic reserve is expected within the coming weeks.

Witt said the Trump administration has resolved much of the relevant legal obstacles and is prepared to protect the U.S. government's Bitcoin holdings on a legally stable basis. He added that if the United States does not make the rules, it will have to follow the rules made by other countries, and said the initiative could be linked to the future structure of the financial system.

Elizabeth Warren Criticizes OCC for Granting National Trust Bank Charters to Crypto Firms

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren said the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's granting of national trust bank charters to crypto companies including Ripple and Coinbase was inappropriate.

According to Odaily, in a letter sent to the OCC on May 18, Warren argued that the OCC had improperly granted national trust bank charters to at least nine crypto companies since December 2025.

Warren said these companies' business plans go beyond the limited functions permitted for national trust banks, arguing that they are effectively crypto banks seeking to avoid basic banking safeguards and obligations.

Companies that reportedly received approval or conditional approval include Ripple, Circle, Paxos, Fidelity, BitGo, Coinbase, Stripe subsidiary Bridge, and Crypto.com.

Earlier, the American Bankers Association urged the OCC in February to delay review of related charter applications. Warren warned that these approvals could weaken consumer protection and increase regulatory arbitrage risks.

SlowMist Warns of Large-Scale Mini Sandworm Supply Chain Attack

SlowMist said on the 20th through its threat intelligence channel that the mass leakage of GitHub tokens and the Grafana Labs ransomware attack are highly likely to be related to a large-scale 'Mini Sandworm' supply chain attack.

According to SlowMist, widely used packages including AntV, Echarts-for-react, and the Python SDK durabletask were targeted. On the 19th, the npm account 'atool' was compromised, and within 22 minutes the attacker automatically deployed 637 malicious versions across 317 packages.

In addition, between 00:19 and 00:54 Beijing time on the 20th, durabletask versions 1.4.1, 1.4.2, and 1.4.3 were uploaded in quick succession. SlowMist said the attacker bypassed normal release controls and disguised the packages as official Microsoft releases.

Attackers may attempt to steal cloud and on-premise credentials, gain unauthorized access to internal repositories and sensitive cloud infrastructure, infiltrate developer systems and CI/CD pipelines, and sell or abuse leaked GitHub tokens.

SlowMist recommended immediately rotating exposed credentials, replacing affected packages, isolating potentially infected systems, and strengthening dependency review policies.

U.S. Senate Advances Resolution to Limit Trump's Military Authority Regarding Iran

The U.S. Senate passed a procedural step by a vote of 50 to 47 to advance a war powers resolution limiting President Trump's military authority related to Iran, according to Odaily.

The resolution would restrict the use of U.S. forces in Iran without congressional approval and comes as U.S.-Iran tensions have continued for about three months.

Andri Fauzan Azima, head researcher at Bitrue Research, said the move could be strongly bullish for the digital asset market and that Bitcoin could see a 6% to 10% relief rally in the coming days.

As of the time of reporting, Bitcoin was trading roughly flat near $76,500 over the past 24 hours.

Federal Reserve Reports 10% of Americans Hold Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies

It was reported that the U.S. Federal Reserve said 10% of Americans hold Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.

According to source @pete_rizzo, the ratio is the highest since 2022. This is viewed as an indicator that Bitcoin and crypto ownership in the United States is expanding again.

Spot Ethereum ETFs See Net Outflow of $62.2968 Million in One Day

Odaily, citing SoSoValue data, reported that on the 19th, U.S. Eastern Time, spot Ethereum ETFs saw a total net outflow of $62.2968 million.

By product, Bitwise ETHW recorded a net inflow of $756,300. In contrast, BlackRock ETHA posted the largest outflow, with a net outflow of $59.3682 million.

As of the time of reporting, the total net assets of spot Ethereum ETFs stood at $12.142 billion, accounting for 4.75% of Ethereum's total market capitalization. Cumulative net inflows were recorded at $11.683 billion.

Japan's Ruling LDP Approves Plan for AI- and Blockchain-Based Automated Financial Infrastructure

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party approved a proposal to build automated financial infrastructure using artificial intelligence and blockchain technology, according to PANews citing Cointelegraph.

The Policy Research Council's 'Next-Generation AI and On-Chain Finance Initiative' includes applying blockchain to retail and wholesale payments so that AI can autonomously conduct economic activities. The plan also includes clarifying the legal status of yen-pegged stablecoins.

The committee said secure on-chain payment infrastructure is necessary to strengthen Japan's AI competitiveness and expand cooperation with Asian countries. Earlier, in April, the Japanese government also pushed for legal amendments to classify cryptocurrencies as financial products.