[PRESS RELEASE – NEW YORK, U.S./NY, April 25th, 2025]

Landmark Ruling Marks Major Win for Cryptocurrency, Open-Source Innovation, and Free Speech

In a sweeping legal victory, serial entrepreneur, author, and philanthropist Richard Heart has won the complete dismissal of all claims brought against him by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

U.S. District Judge Carol Bagley Amon granted Richard Heart’s motion to dismiss on February 28, 2025. The SEC had until last Monday, April 21, to amend its complaint and ultimately announced “it does not intend to file an amended complaint in this matter.” These events fully clear Heart and his blockchain products — HEX, PulseChain, and PulseX — of allegations that they constituted unregistered securities and also dismisses claims that Heart misused investor funds.

“Richard Heart, PulseChain, PulseX, and HEX have defeated the SEC completely and have achieved regulatory clarity that nearly no other coins have. They’re now safer to work with in ways that almost no other coins are. …this is the only case where the SEC lost and crypto won across the board, with a dismissal in court of every single claim the SEC brought.” —Comments from Richard Heart’s Twitter/X on Monday’s news.

Legal analysts view the ruling as a decisive blow to the SEC’s expansive crypto enforcement strategy — one increasingly criticized for regulatory overreach and repeatedly rebuked by courts as arbitrary and capricious.

The SEC filed suit in July 2023, accusing Heart of raising more than $1 billion through unregistered offerings and spending millions on personal luxuries. In an unusual legal approach, the SEC also named his open-source crypto products — HEX, PulseChain, and PulseX — as codefendants, alleging they were Heart’s “alter egos.”

Judge Carol Bagley Amon of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York rejected the SEC’s arguments in full, ruling that the agency lacked jurisdiction and the offerings were globally accessible but not specifically targeted at the United States. The court also found no substantial connection to domestic securities transactions, stating that the tokens were not sold on U.S. exchanges and that the SEC failed to show any direct marketing to U.S. investors.

The court further dismissed the SEC’s fraud claims in full, finding the agency had failed to demonstrate that any investor communications were misleading or that the alleged misuse of funds occurred within U.S. jurisdiction. As a result, all claims against Heart and his blockchain products were dismissed. The SEC later confirmed it does not intend to amend or refile its complaint, allowing the dismissal to stand and formally closing the case with no findings of wrongdoing.

From the outset, Heart has always maintained that his products fully comply with the law. Now it’s official. This is a landmark win for cryptocurrency, open-source innovation, and free speech.

“This dismissal reinforces that publishing software — especially open-source blockchain code — is protected speech,” said Twitter/X user @NuclearHerbs, a U.S.-based attorney who attended the hearings.

Legal analysts view the ruling as a decisive blow to the SEC’s expansive crypto enforcement strategy — one increasingly criticized for regulatory overreach and repeatedly rebuked by courts as arbitrary and capricious. With all claims dismissed, HEX, PulseChain, and PulseX now carry a level of legal clarity few other tokens enjoy.

[PRESS RELEASE – San Francisco, California, April 25th, 2025]

Huma Finance, the first PayFi network, has surpassed $4 billion in Total Transaction Volume (TTV), just two years after its launch and within two weeks of unveiling Huma 2.0 – signalling a major shift in how real yield is accessed and distributed in DeFi.

As of April, the platform is growing at a rate of over $500 million, and is on track to exceed $10 billion TTV within the year.

“PayFi is no longer simply a concept or emerging category; it’s live and scaling faster than we ever anticipated,” said Erbil Karaman, Co-Founder of Huma Finance. “For years, traditional finance has locked real yield behind closed doors. With Huma 2.0 we’re tearing those doors down and putting institutional-grade returns in the hands of every user. We are deeply grateful to our launch partners Jupiter and Kamino for making it even more accessible.”

Huma 2.0 is innovative for its ability to democratize real yields normally only accessible to institutions. Traditionally, when you deposit funds into a bank account, the bank leverages that liquidity for slow, costly transfers, like SWIFT, while returning almost nothing to the depositor. With Huma’s PayFi network, that model is flipped: payment companies access stablecoin liquidity directly to accelerate their payment flows in a capital efficient way, depositors receive double-digit, real-world yields in return.

Unlike traditional DeFi, PayFi’s yield is tied to fees collected during payment flows, not speculative market conditions. This makes it a more sustainable and reliable alternative for users seeking consistent returns in a volatile environment.

Since launching Huma 2.0 on Solana, the number of active wallet addresses on Huma has surged over 490% from 5,600 to 33,000 in just two weeks. This rapid growth demonstrates the appetite for real and sustainable yield.

Huma is now preparing to expand the PayFi network even further, with upcoming partnerships involving some of the world’s largest payment institutions.

For more information about Huma 2.0, and upcoming announcements, visit huma.finance.

About Huma Finance

Huma is the first PayFi (Payment Finance) network. It features an open-stack liquidity protocol with applications for key areas like cross-border payments, stablecoin-backed cards, and trade finance. The network addresses a total market estimated at over $30 trillion. Its mission is to accelerate the movement of money for a world that’s always on.

It was just over two weeks ago when the predominant sentiment in the cryptocurrency market was whether the bull run had ended prematurely, as BTC’s price had tumbled to a five-month low of under $75,000. Now, the asset is pushing above $95,000.

A big portion of those gains came in the past week. As we explained in the Market Update from last Friday, the previous week went rather calmly, with BTC’s price trading sideways around $85,000. The weekend was similar, but the bulls stepped up on the gas pedal on Monday and didn’t look back.

At the time, bitcoin jumped by over three grand and broke out of its tight range where $86,000 played the role of an upper boundary. Just a day later, the cryptocurrency shot up past $90,000 for the first time since early March, and the gains kept on coming.

Perhaps driven by some reports claiming the trade war between the US and China had calmed, at least for the time being, bitcoin flew past $95,000 earlier today to mark a two-month high. Naturally, the sentiment has changed once again, and the crowd is now asking whether $100,000 will fall next and when we will see a new all-time high.

Looking at the weekly chart, BTC’s performance is quite impressive. The asset has gained more than 12%. However, many altcoins have posted even more notable price gains, such as SOL, DOGE, ADA, LINK, AVAX, and, of course, SUI, which has skyrocketed by 75% to trade at $3.7 now.

Market Data

Market Cap: $3.09T | 24H Vol: $115B | BTC Dominance: 61.3%

BTC: $95,300 (+12.8%) | ETH: $1,807 (+13.7%) | XRP: $2.21 (+6.6%)

This Week’s Crypto Headlines You Can’t Miss

ARK Invest Explains How Bitcoin (BTC) Could Shoot Up to $1.5 Million by 2030. Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest continues to be highly bullish on bitcoin’s price potential by upping its long-term prediction to somewhere between $1.5 million and $2.4 million per BTC. You can check Ark’s reasoning here.

Bitcoin (BTC) Shows Resilience as It Strengthens and Decouples from Stock Markets. After the tariff-induced shock and price massacre, bitcoin’s aforementioned recovery brought a lot of hope back to the market. Moreover, the asset decoupled from traditional stocks, which showed strength and resilience, said CryptoQuant.

Bitcoin ETFs Record Largest Inflows Since Trump’s Inauguration in January. The economic uncertainty prompted by Trump’s trade war led to large outflows from the BTC ETFs within the past few months. However, the trend has changed now, with several consecutive days of net inflows. Moreover, April 22 became the highest single-day of net inflows since Trump’s inauguration.

Dinner with the President: Whales Go Crazy as TRUMP Coin Skyrockets. Among the most controversial news coming from US President Trump regarding the crypto community this week was the update on TRUMP’s meme coin website stating that the top 220 holders will have a chance to attend a special dinner with the POTUS. Naturally, this led to an immediate buying frenzy and price volatility.

Charles Hoskinson Says Ethereum May Not Survive the Next Decade. During another AMA session, Charles Hoskinson, who is not only the brain behind Cardano but also helped co-found Ethereum, said the latter’s struggles will continue in the following decade and warned that today’s second-biggest blockchain network might not survive.

Arthur Hayes Predicts $200K Bitcoin Fueled by Treasury Buybacks. While Ark Invest expects a BTC price within the millions (in dollars) in the next 5-6 years, Arthur Hayes was more modest, making a case that the asset can skyrocket to $200,000 but on a shorter timeframe. He believes treasury buybacks will be a key reason behind such a potential rally.

Charts

This week, we have a chart analysis of Ethereum, Ripple, Cardano, Hype, and Solana – click here for the complete price analysis.